Sulphur and Brimstone
by Sleeping Bag
Summary: After dealing with the unwanted attention of a mad scientist, Starfire begins acting strange. What could be the reason? Rated for safety and mature but not really sexual themes.
1. Greasepaint and Slapstick

(Disclaimer: According to the existentialists, I am wholly free and exclusively own myself. I do not, however, own the Titans. So much for philosophy, I guess.)

_-Chapter One: Greasepaint and Slapstick-_

Perched on the rooftop of one of the many waterfront warehouses in the Jump City shipping district, Robin stared out into the night with the aid of a pair of night vision binoculars. He scanned back and forth, watching for any sign of a disturbance in the next shipping yard over, the very picture of focussed patience. Years of working with Batman on similar stakeouts had made him perfectly at ease with these kinds of waiting games—the other Titans, however, had not had the benefit of that training, and were growing increasingly impatient. As one, they looked up from their game of euchre at their leader. They had all had enough.

"Hey, Robin, come on, man, what's…" Beast Boy began, but Robin shushed him with a wave of his hand.

"Friend Robin, are we not meant to…" Starfire attempted, but again, Robin shushed her.

"Rob, jeez, when are we going…" Cyborg tried, but Robin silenced him with a ferocious hiss. Still, despite such an obvious expression of his irritation with his teammates, it was only a matter of moments before Raven also decided to break the silence, and with a bit more success than the others.

"Okay, I'm used to meditating for long periods of time and all, but we've been here for five hours and nothing's happened," she complained. "This is pointless. Let's just go home."

This was the last straw for Robin, and he turned to glare at his team for a moment before returning to his vigil via binoculars.

"This is what a stakeout _is_, guys," he snapped, still keeping the binoculars pressed to his eyes. "It's all about _waiting_. And you're right, nothing has happened yet, and who knows, nothing might happen all night, but if something _does_ happen we have to be here, so just sit tight and shut up."

"But do we _all_ have to be here? I have to get my beauty rest," Beast Boy whined.

"For once, I actually agree with Beast Boy," Raven added, with a slight tone of incredulity at this unlikely turn of events. "What's so important about this shipment that we all have to guard it? If you like this stakeout stuff so much, why don't you do it by yourself?"

"Not an option," Robin stated simply. "This is a Wayne Enterprises shipment coming in, and aside from it just being good business to help protect the interests of one of our main financial patrons, this is also a very _serious_ shipment."

"Serious? So this 'shipment' will not be telling jokes?" Starfire asked with her usual mild confusion regarding colloquial uses of otherwise innocuous words. Robin sighed.

"No, Star, I meant that the contents of the shipment should be taken seriously, because they are very dangerous," he explained, his tone softening somewhat for the alien.

"What kind of dangerous?" Cyborg asked. "I know Wayne Enterprises deals with some pretty heavy-duty stuff in some of its divisions, but what exactly are we dealing with, here?"

"Chemicals, and some nasty ones, too," Robin replied. "They're heading for a research facility in Gotham where they'll be used in tests that might end up being a breakthrough in cancer research, but if the wrong people got their hands on them first, well…" His voice trailed off, leaving it to his teammates' imaginations to fill in all the horrible possibilities.

"And this anonymous tip you got said that some 'wrong people' were going to hit the shipment as soon as it landed tonight, I assume," Raven guessed. Robin nodded.

"It didn't say who it was, exactly, but it hinted that it was a pretty heavy hitter—not someone the usual security team would be able to deal with," he said, still with his back to the other Titans and staring out through the binoculars. "Only a hint, but still it's better to be safe than ankle deep in toxic chemicals."

The other Titans grumbled a little, but realized that Robin had a point. They knew from experience that it made their jobs much easier when they nipped things in the bud rather than sitting and waiting until some madman had already fully developed his crazy scheme for world domination or whatever. Mollified, they settled back into their game, which Beast Boy was eerily good at, having managed to euchre Cyborg and Raven no less than three times in the past five hands. Unfortunately for him, his nearly mystical skill was perfectly matched by Starfire's good-natured but nevertheless misguided attempts to play along, and she had cost the two of them four out of the last six games. In every case, Beast Boy's masterful playing had left Cyborg and Raven far behind and he could have almost _tasted_ victory, but suddenly Starfire seemed to just pop out of nowhere and ruin every single one of his plans, allowing the other pair to not just catch up to them, but overtake them and steal the win in only a few short hands. This caused Beast Boy no end of frustration—he doubted he would have been able to lose so spectacularly even if he tried. He glared across at Starfire, but she misinterpreted his look, either because of the darkness or because of her natural naiveté, and grinned widely back at him. She then promptly got them euchred. Twice. Beast Boy groaned.

"Dude, this is unreal—isn't getting a euchre supposed to be rare in this game?" he asked nobody in particular. "How the hell does Star get us euchred twice in a row?"

"Hey, who are _you_ to talk? Before that, _you_ euchred _us_ three times," Cyborg snorted. "I didn't hear you complaining then."

"Yeah, well, those three weren't all in a row, and besides, they were all due to my mad card skills," Beast Boy shot back.

"I guess you finally had to be good at _something_," Raven muttered, and Cyborg choked back a laugh. Starfire didn't appear to have heard.

"_Hey!_" Beast Boy cried. "That's not…"

"_Quiet!_" Robin hissed. "Something's happening."

The prospect of finally getting some action in a night of otherwise unmitigated boredom cleared all thoughts of petty bickering from the Titans' heads, and they quickly dropped their cards and joined Robin at the edge of the rooftop.

"What did you see?" Cyborg asked as he used his mechanical eye to magnify his view of the neighbouring shipping yard. "What am I looking for?"

"It's more what I _didn't_ see," Robin replied, somewhat cryptically, before explaining further. "I've been watching the guards make their rounds ever since we got here, and so far they've always followed the same pattern, but one of them just disappeared—I have no idea where he went."

"Could someone finally be making a move?" Raven asked.

"Maybe. The guards might be changing their sentry pattern, or maybe I just missed the guy," Robin admitted. "No, wait—I just lost another one."

"Where?" Cyborg said, trying desperately to get his bearings and suddenly wishing that he, too, had spent the last few hours on the lookout like Robin had.

"Sectors 21 A and 36 C," Robin told him. "Shit! Now I've lost one in 38 D!"

"What are those, bra sizes?" Beast Boy asked as he hopped up and down behind his taller friends to try to get a better view.

"No, genius, those are sectors in my mechanical eye's field of vision. Robin's probably got them memorized," Cyborg replied, taking a brief moment to wonder anew at the spiky-haired boy's ability to retain any information he came across. "And from the way they're arranged…oh, man. Whoever it is that's grabbing the guards is making a beeline straight for the warehouse with the Wayne shipment in it."

"Dammit! Titans, _GO!_" Robin shouted, and leapt off the rooftop, his teammates close behind him.

**OOO**

Holding up a hand to silence the other Titans, Robin edged hesitantly around the corner of the warehouse door to get a look inside. The door was one of those large, nearly completely square ones that transport trucks would back up against in order to load or unload. The segmented steel door was raised up along its tracks, lost in the darkness above Robin's head, leaving the warehouse completely, tantalizingly open. Even so, it was almost pitch black inside, and all Robin could make out were the vague outlines of support beams where they were struck by the combination of moonlight and the artificial light from the light posts outside that streamed in through the doorway. He grunted in mild consternation.

"Okay, this is probably a trap," Robin informed his team in a businesslike manner, as though this was nothing out of the ordinary, and really, for the Titans, it wasn't. "Move in, but take it slow, go cautiously, support each other, and don't even _think_ about letting your guard down for even a _second_."

The Titans nodded and followed his orders exactly, slipping silently into the warehouse. Robin took point, and the others fell into formation behind him with a practiced ease that could only come from years of working together, relaxed yet still alert and wary, all their tools and powers primed for use on a moment's notice—they were ready for anything. However, despite this their as-yet-unseen adversary still had a surprise for them, and one of the warehouse's hanging lamps suddenly flared to life, casting a small circle of light onto the ground only a few dozen feet away. In this small patch of light sat three human shapes, and by the look of their uniforms they were the missing guards. They were slumped forward, facing away from the Titans, and Robin beckoned them to follow him as he circled around to get a better look at them, being careful not to get too close to the lighted area. He soon wished he hadn't, however—cold dread seized the pit of his stomach and his whole world seemed to fall out from under him as he saw their faces. Their distorted, grotesquely smiling faces.

"Oh, no," Robin whispered. "Not _him…_"

The other Titans looked questioningly at their leader, but before they could say a word a voice called out of the darkness, playful in tone but bone-chilling nonetheless.

"Robin, my boy! How good of you to join the party!"

Another of the warehouse's overhead lights flickered on, revealing the speaker to be a man dressed in an impossible lavender suit with a matching bowtie and a shockingly bright green shirt. Most shocking of all, however, was his face—his dark green hair contrasted sharply with his chalk white skin, and his bright crimson lips were twisted upwards into a perpetual toothy grin. He was flanked by a slim woman dressed entirely in a red and black jester's outfit, as well as three men who could only be referred to as goons, and while they were significantly less colourful they more than made up for it with sheer size.

"Oh, wonderful! You've brought your little friends with you as well! What are they called again? The Teen Titmice?" the Joker continued, his red lips twisting into an even more outrageous smile.

"Oh, man…is that who I think it is?" Cyborg asked quietly, and Robin simply nodded, his eyes fixated on the monster in front of him.

"What's the matter, Robbie-kins? No hug for your Uncle Joker?" the clown joked, but Robin simply continued to glare.

"Friend Robin, I do not understand," Starfire interjected. "Who is this strange person?" Robin opened his mouth to reply, but the Joker beat him to it.

"Oh, forgive me, I've forgotten to properly introduce myself," he apologized, and took a deep and overly theatrical bow. "Some call me the Clown Prince of Crime. Some call me the Gangster of Laughs. _Some_ call me Maurice…"

As if on cue, one of his henchmen pulled out a small trumpet and blew two notes, the sound of which might accurately be transcribed as "_mwah_ mwaaaah", and the Joker dissolved into manic laughter, as did his moll, Harley. The three goons laughed along, albeit rather confusedly—they didn't get the joke, but they had worked for the Joker for a long time and knew what was good for them.

"Oh, that's a _killer_, boss," Harley managed between fits of laughter. "I never even saw it coming!"

"Hah, yes. I've just been _dying_ to use it, but I'm hard-pressed nowadays to find someone who doesn't recognize me—I guess stepping out of dreary old Gotham for a spell was a good idea," the Joker cackled, but then stopped and eyed the Titans thoughtfully for a moment. They weren't laughing.

"It seems, though, that _some_ people don't appreciate the lengths I go to for a good joke," the Joker said accusingly.

"Maybe they didn't get it," Harley suggested with a shrug. "Kids these days, eh, Mr. J?"

"By Jove, Harley, I think you've put your finger right on the button!" the Joker exclaimed, clapping his hand against his forehead. "_That_ particular joke, while it is a damn good one, is targeted at a slightly older age group! I've _completely_ misread my audience! How could I have been so _foolish_?"

"Aw, don't sweat it, Mr. J," Harley consoled him. "Everyone has their bad days every now and then."

"I know, I know, but still, if this gets out my reputation will be _ruined_!" the Joker moaned, devastated. "Harl, Mo, Lar, Cur—you won't tell anyone, will you?" Harley and the three goons shook their heads vigorously.

"Not us, boss! You can count on us!" cried one of the goons, who was likely the one called Mo, judging from his bowl cut hairstyle.

"Oh, _thank_ you, it's so good to know I have people I can trust," the Joker gushed melodramatically, but then he turned to look at the Titans and his expression soured. "_Them_, on the other hand, I'm not so sure about."

"Oh, I'm sure you can think of _some_ way to take care of them, puddin'," Harley said with a knowing leer, and with this the Joker brightened.

"'Take care of them,' eh? Take _care_ of them! Harley, my dear, you've done it again!" he cried, and then pointed at the Titans and grinned. "Kill them!" he commanded gleefully.

Mo, Lar, and Cur, along with Harley, began to advance towards the Titans threateningly, their faces adorned with various degrees of sneers, but suddenly Starfire, who had been deep in thought, spoke up and interrupted them.

"So, if I am to understand you correctly, your name is…Maurice?" she asked, pointing at the Joker. "And you are Friend Robin's uncle? But then why would you seek to kill him, when only moments ago you wanted a hug?"

This stopped Harley and the goons in their tracks. Refusing to believe what they had just heard, they turned to stare back at the Joker, as much to see his reaction as for new orders. The Joker, meanwhile, stared at Starfire, his mouth hanging open in disbelief for several seconds before he was able to recover. When he did, it was to once again dissolve into uproarious laughter.

"Um…no, Starfire, he wasn't being serious just now," Robin whispered hurriedly. "His name isn't really Maurice, it's the Joker, he _isn't_ my uncle, he just always calls himself Uncle Joker, and he didn't really want a hug—he most likely wanted to kill us from the start."

"But then why go through all of that?" Starfire asked in confusion. "Why not simply attack immediately?"

"Well, it's because he's just totally insane," Robin explained. "Everything is a big joke for him. That's why he set everything up so dramatically, and…"

"Oh, that's _rich_!" the Joker interrupted, tears of merriment streaming down his face. "Classic! Simply _too_ perfect! I think we have a live one here, boys! I had _no idea_ that anyone could be so completely, utterly _dense_!"

"Ummm…I apologize, but I am confused once again," Starfire stated, chewing her bottom lip and blushing with embarrassment. "I am indeed alive, and Tamaraneans do have a greater muscle density than is natural for humans, but I do not see how this is at all relevant to the current situation." In response, the Joker simply started laughing all over again, and Robin found himself begin to blush in embarrassment as well.

"Starfire, those are actually figures of speech," he whispered to her. "He was…well, I hate to say it, but he was calling you stupid." Realization dawned on Starfire, and she frowned.

"I see," she growled through clenched teeth, and turned to face the Joker. "Mr. Joker, while I am unfamiliar with many Earthly ways, I am not stupid, and I take offence to your suggestion that I am."

"This just keeps getting _better_!" the Joker giggled, and Starfire's eyes narrowed.

"I believe in mercy, however, so I will give you the opportunity to apologize for insulting me," she continued, but the Joker just keeled over laughing. He rolled around on the ground, kicking his feet wildly, gasping for breath between fresh waves of laughter.

"Apologize? Me?" he managed to get out. "For creating such a _hilarious_ gag by _accident_? I should get a medal!" Starfire's face contorted in an uncharacteristic snarl.

"Very well," she stated simply, and launched herself at the clown with a cry of pent up aggression being released.

It all happened in the space of a moment: Starfire streaking towards the Joker, Robin calling for her to stop, that it wasn't safe, Harley and the goons rushing in vain to defend their boss, and the Joker…the Joker just smiled.

"Too predictable, kiddo," he whispered, and tossed a grenade made up in his likeness in Starfire's path. It exploded, releasing a cloud of opaque yellowish gas that blocked all sight, and although she could see the Joker's minions quickly toss on gas masks out of the corner of her eye, in her surprise she could not help but gasp, and got a lungful of the vapour. She plummeted to the ground, coughing and wheezing.

"_Starfire! No!_" Robin screamed, but his training took over and he found himself putting on his gas mask before he even realized that he had taken it from his belt. "Raven, cover Cyborg and Beast Boy, I've got to get Starfire out of there! That's Joker toxin!"

"Don't worry about me," Cyborg said, waving away Raven's offered telekinetic shield even as she enveloped Beast Boy. "My air filters are having to work pretty hard, but they've got it covered. I'm good to go."

"Fine, Cyborg, you're with me. Let's go!" Robin shouted through his mask and darted into the cloud of gas, Cyborg in close pursuit. They found Starfire on her knees at the feet of the Joker, who was cackling like the devil himself.

"Too late, Boy Blunder!" he shrieked. "Your little girlfriend just got a full dose of my toxin! She's as good as dead!"

"_Starfire!_" Robin shouted, ignoring the insane clown's ranting. "Starfire, it's alright, we're going to get you help," he consoled her, then turned to Cyborg. "Cy, get me a full chemical analysis of this gas—we're going to have to…"

"Ugh, what is that smell?" Starfire muttered, interrupting Robin's orders. "I believe I am going to have it stuck in my olfactory organ for at _least_ a full seven-day cycle."

"What? Starfire? You're okay?" Robin asked incredulously, and the Joker, if anything, was even more surprised.

"You mean you aren't finding things very funny right about now?" the Joker inquired cautiously. "Because that's really what I was going for."

"No, no, but this gas _does_ smell like forn'r'thax," Starfire replied. "I like forn'r'thax just as much as the next Tamaranean, but too much can be _quite_ oppressive."

"Forn or what? And my Joker toxin does _not_ smell! I assure you that it is quite odourless," the Joker insisted.

"It is _forn'r'thax_, Mr. Joker, and while I am sure that your gas is indeed odourless to humans, it certainly smells like forn'r'thax to me," Starfire informed him. "In fact, I would have difficulty _not _recognizing its smell—it is considered a delicacy on my native world of Tamaran, and its scent is _very_ distinctive."

"Wait, so this stuff smells like _food_ to you?" Cyborg asked, and Starfire nodded affirmatively. "And it isn't having any particular effects on you at all?" Starfire nodded again. Although it was hard to see under his gas mask, Robin grinned, both in relief and anticipation, and turned to the Joker.

"Well, Joker, it looks like you've tipped your hand—Starfire's immune to your gas," Robin said. "And now you've got five _very_ annoyed superheroes to deal with. I'd say that puts you at a disadvantage, wouldn't you?"

The Joker swore colourfully and threw a handful of razor sharp cards, all of which missed except for one that stuck harmlessly in Cyborg's front armour. Muttering a few even more vile curses, the Joker then turned and ran, leaving Harley and his goons to the Titans.

"Hey, boss! Wait for us!" the goon probably called Mo called and ran blindly through the swirling cloud of gas which was only just now beginning to dissipate. Or rather, he only ran through the cloud as far as it took for him to slam himself into Robin's extended staff.

"Ah, a wise guy, eh?" said the goon who could only have been Cur. He had been following close behind Mo and had seen the whole thing. "Why I oughtta...lemme at 'im! Nyah, nyah!"

In reply, Cyborg simply drew himself to his full height and loomed over the enraged goon, who only had time to squeak in fright before he got clobbered by four hundred pounds of cybernetic super-teen. Lar and Harley, who had been a bit further behind, had time to skid to a stop and turn to run in the opposite direction, but from the sound of it they ran right into Raven and Beast Boy. A girlish shriek, which could have come from either Lar or Harley with equal likelihood, was all that heralded the defeat of the last of the Joker's gang. A few seconds later the gas seemed to be swept aside by a rippling field of black energy, leaving everyone's view perfectly clear. Raven quickly surrounded the gas on all sides with her powers and compressed it into a sphere about the size of a bowling ball.

"Right, what should I do with this?" she asked, holding up the ball of deadly toxin nonchalantly in one hand.

"Put it in water. That'll neutralize it," Robin told her, then addressed the Titans more generally. "Is everyone fine? Good, we're going after the Joker. There's _no way_ I'm letting that madman go free on my watch. Titans! _Go!_"

With that, Robin sped off in pursuit of the mad clown, the other Titans close behind him.

**OOO**

In a distant part of the city there was a room. It was pitch black, the only illumination coming from the glow of a single television screen, which cast strange shadows on the surrounding walls. This room, while of intense and immediate interest to those who currently occupied it, would not even be worth mentioning for our purposes if it were not for precisely _what_ was on that screen.

"Titans! _Go!_" said the image of Robin on the screen, and suddenly he ran off camera with the other Titans.

"Computer, go to camera twenty-four."

The image on the screen changed, showing a different part of the shipping yard, just in time for the Titans to be seen running past.

"Computer, is the camera drone following the subject?"

:AFFIRMATIVE:

"Show me its feed, then."

The image on the screen changed once more, this time to a view of the Titans that followed along as they ran, showing them from the side with a slight downwards angle, as though the camera was racing along beside them on the rooftops above their heads.

"Computer, centre the view on the subject and magnify."

The image panned over a little and zoomed in so that Starfire took up the entirety of the screen.

"Perfect. Pause it."

The image of Starfire froze on the screen, and the source of the voice leaned in closer to get a better view, causing his face to catch the dim light from the monitor—while little detail was visible, his glasses were quite evident, and glared malevolently in the darkness. A hand reached up to touch the screen, trailing over the image of the alien girl.

"Perfect. Did you _see_ that, Fulton?" the man asked rhetorically of his unseen companion. "Joker toxin is one of the most insidious poisons known to man, and the alien just shrugged it off like it was nothing. Cancer, AIDS, ebola, the common cold, virtually every disease known to man, and now Joker toxin, too—she's immune to them all. Now, more than ever, I know that she will be the key to the success of my research."

"Well, yes, Dr. Havelock, but then your experiments with that sample of her genetic material that you got from Cadmus have already shown considerable promise," said another voice, a female one, that must have belonged to 'Fulton'.

"Oh, please, Fulton. Experiments on nothing but cloned tissue are incomplete at best," Dr. Havelock chided her. "I need the original, or all my work will be for nothing."

"But doctor, wouldn't a clone be just as…"

"I need the_ original_,Fulton! I need _her_!" Dr. Havelock roared suddenly, jabbing a finger viciously at the image on the screen. "My work will have no _truth_ to it otherwise! No _substance_!" Fulton said nothing, and the doctor calmed down somewhat before continuing.

"I need the original," he repeated, "and I know _just_ how to get her…"

_-End Chapter One-_

**Author's Note:** This is the beginning of my new serious story. Hopefully all will go well. While this chapter might not have suggested it much, aside from the good doctor's cryptic remarks at the end, this will be a fairly Starfire-centred story. This might be a bit of a stretch for me, because Starfire is not exactly my favourite character, so my characterization might be a bit off. Well, I'll just have to see how it goes.

No, the Joker won't be making any more appearances. My only real reasons for including him in this chapter were for the "some call me Maurice" joke and to go against something I've noticed in at least one other story that featured him—that is, that the Titans had to have Batman come to save them. I'm thinking of one story in particular here, but it's been a while since I read it so I can remember neither the title nor the author, and anyway, this isn't a "Hey, so-and-so, your story such-and-such was really stupid, nah nah!" kind of commentary. My only reason for mentioning it at all is that I would like to make note of my differing opinion about how the Titans would stand up against the Clown Prince of Crime. I don't think they'd need Batman. Batman has defeated the Joker many times, both single-handedly and with Robin's help, and while Batman _is_ a genius and an incredible combatant, he's also just one guy with no superpowers. Replacing him in the usual "Batman and Robin" duo with not one, but _four_ superpowered teenagers would still present more than a match for the Joker in a straight fight in my opinion (he might be able to get the edge using psychological warfare over an extended criminal campaign, but that isn't the situation here). I don't think the Titans' relative inexperience will make too much of a difference, because first of all, it's inexperience when compared to _Batman_, for God's sake, and second of all, I don't think they're really all that inexperienced by _any_ comparison. They've been fighting together for, what, four seasons of the cartoon now? And there seem to be hints that the team was at least _around_ before the first episode of the first season. Ergo, not really all that inexperienced. I mean, they took on a guy who was, for all intents and purposes, the devil. And _beat _him. Yeah, so that accounts for why I think the Titans would be able to beat the Joker, at least in this scenario. As for why the Joker wouldn't have realized this himself, well, let me once again split it into two arguments: one, as an adult, I'm sure it would be pretty easy to discount the abilities of a team of teenagers, which would have resulted in him wildly underestimating the Titans; two, he's crazy. This is the _Joker_ we're talking about, here. His plans don't _have_ to make sense—in fact, it's probably best if they don't.

Anyway, as I said, this isn't to say that anyone who thinks the Titans would need Batman to beat the Joker is wrong. I'm just saying that I don't necessarily agree. (Also, it seems kind of like Robin would be saying "Waaaaah! Surrogate Daddy! Surrogate Daddy! That bad man is doing mean things!", and that's just not the way I see him _at all_.)

Oh, and as just a quick aside, it really helps if you imagine Mark Hamill doing the voice of the Joker, like he did in Batman: The Animated Series. Honestly, it's some of the best work he's ever done. Including Star Wars. (Shit, I am _so_ going to get flamed for that…)


	2. Grab and Go

(Disclaimer: I am not, nor have I ever been a member of the Communist party. I also don't own the Titans.)

_-Chapter Two: Grab and Go-_

"Man, did you see that chick in the red?" Beast Boy exclaimed around a mouthful of pizza. It was the day after their stakeout—they had caught the Joker after a relatively brief but extremely cliché chase and had handed him over, heavily sedated, to the Jump City police to ship back to Arkham. To celebrate, Robin suggested that they go out to get pizza, see a movie, and maybe hit a club. This idea was promptly vetoed by the rest of the team due to the fact that it was four in the morning at the time so nothing would be open. Plus, they were tired. Fortunately, Robin was flexible on the issue, and amended his idea to include ample time for the Titans to catch up on their sleep first. This second idea met with resounding success, and having already slept sufficiently and seen a movie, which Cyborg won the right of choosing in a quick tournament of rock-paper-scissors, they were now eating at their usual pizza parlour in downtown Jump City, laughing, joking, and discussing the events of the previous night.

"What about 'that chick in the red'?" Cyborg asked. "_Please_ don't tell me you thought she was hot or something."

"Well, she _was_, but I was _going_ to say she was _crazy_," Beast Boy replied, a look of mild indignation on his face. "I mean, she came after me with a giant wooden mallet. A mallet! Who the hell brings a mallet to a superhero fight?"

"Crazy people do, Beast Boy, and Harley Quinn is about as crazy as they come, next to the Joker himself," Robin retorted with a wry smile.

"Yeah, and who would have thought that the _Joker_ had a _girlfriend_? How twisted is _that_?" Cyborg said incredulously. "I heard somewhere that she used to work at Arkham asylum, too—isn't that where they usually keep Joker?"

"That's right," Robin sighed, suddenly looking deeply into his glass of soda, a serious expression on his face. "Harleen Quinzel—she was a psychiatrist, if you'd believe it. Then the Joker got his hands on her, and _now_ look at her."

"I guess she got a little _too_ far into his head," Raven mused. Robin shrugged.

"The Joker's crazy as a loon, sure, but he's still got a pretty powerful personality. He just fed her the right lies until she saw his side of things—probably charmed the pants off of her," he said, and snorted in disgust. "Literally."

"Friends, let us not allow ourselves to become preoccupied with such things!" Starfire cried, upset at the dark turn the conversation had taken. "Was the movie we just observed not fascinating? I, for one, was not aware that robots bled white!"

"I think that would depend on the robot in question, Starfire," Raven pointed out. "But don't take my word for it—I'm not really much for science fiction."

"Dude, how can you say that? You're on a team where three out of five members _are_ science fiction!" Beast Boy exclaimed. Raven arched an eyebrow.

"Wow, you actually said something insightful. I'm shocked," she deadpanned.

"Oh, come on! I say insightful things all the time!" Beast Boy protested.

"You mean like your little verbal treatise on the relationship between bust size and physical attractiveness in the car on the way here?" Raven asked.

"Yeah, exactly! I…um…wait, what did I say?" Beast Boy said, scratching the back of his head in a futile attempt to jog his memory.

"I believe your exact words were 'Chicks with big boobs are hotter than chicks with little boobs,'" Raven recited. "I hit you over the head immediately thereafter, so that might explain your lapse in memory."

"Oh, yeah. I remember that. And that _is_ insightful!" Beast Boy insisted, but Raven just shook her head.

"Beast Boy, that's so not insightful that I think it actually qualifies as being _ex_sightful," she spat, crossing her arms angrily.

"That's not a word! And you're just saying that because your b…uhhh…" Beast Boy began, but then his voice trailed off precisely as though he had thought better of whatever it was he had been about to say.

"_My what?_" Raven growled dangerously.

"Um…n-never mind! I-it's n-n-nothing!" Beast Boy stammered, but despite his earnest desire to extricate himself from Raven's wrath it seemed he was fundamentally incapable of doing anything that did not irritate her further, for unfortunately he then added: "You look fine!"

"_What is wrong with the way I look?_" Raven snarled, and slammed her fists on the table.

Beast Boy's eyes widened and he began to back pedal, but with no luck. Robin sighed resignedly from the sidelines, able only to watch as the exchange spiralled further and further away from any semblance of civil discourse.

_Jeez, it's actually a good thing our lives are interrupted so regularly by villains attacking us, because otherwise the Titans would self-destruct simply because of our inability to have a conversation without trying to kill each other,_ Robin thought, massaging his temples gingerly. _Now, if only a villain would…_

As if on cue, Robin's thoughts were interrupted by a shadow looming over him and his team. With a response born of constant practice and necessity, the Titans scattered as a large metallic shape smashed into their table from above. The table, which was a plastic and press-board affair that was sturdy enough only for _normal_ use, collapsed instantly, and sparks flew as the metal attacker drew what appeared to be two buzz saws across the spots that until only a moment ago had been occupied by five teenaged superheroes. Executing a perfect back handspring, Robin took his staff from his belt as he landed, extending it and settling into a loose fighting stance in a single fluid motion. Behind his back, he let several birdarangs fall into his left hand in preparation, then sized up his opponent as it stood up after its initial attack.

_A robot, about ten feet tall, with two arm-mounted buzz saws, looks relatively well-armoured,_ Robin thought, letting adrenaline push his mind into overdrive. _Unfamiliar model, but weak points should be the joints, heat exchanger, and optical sensor array in the 'head'. Armament is dangerous but tactically inflexible. It will need backup for full effectiveness._

"Titans!" he shouted aloud. "Take it out before any civilians get caught in the crossfire! Aim for the usual weak spots, and watch for supporting units!"

Robin punctuated his command by throwing his handful of birdarangs, but as he suspected they had no effect—the robot was too well-armoured, and the razor-sharp projectiles simply bounced off its shell. Robin grunted with frustration and let his teammates handle the robot for now, leaping out of the way of its seemingly random yet incredibly efficient swings of its buzz saws. Briefly taking cover near a wall to palm a handful of high-explosive balls, Robin took stock of the situation, his eyes scanning back and forth for any sign of backup for the robot. Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He let instinct coupled with years of experience take control and rolled away just as a massive blade stabbed through the wall behind him. Robin swore and tossed the small bombs as a second robot crashed through what was left of the wall, but the explosions did nothing but scorch its armour. It was similar to the first one, but differently armed—as it stomped out of the wreckage and sighted on Robin the static stabbing blades at the ends of its arms fanned out into a pair of vicious three-pronged weapons.

_Oh, crap,_ Robin thought as he dodged a strike that drove the new robot's right blade nearly two feet into the pavement. _A second assault type robot—different from the first, but still not a full support, so there must be more of these things._

He leapfrogged over a second lunge and bounded off to rejoin his team, who were still having difficulty with the first robot.

"Man! This thing is tougher than it looks!" Cyborg shouted as he fired his sonic cannon, only managing to put a dent in the robot's armour.

"Yeah, and there's another one right behind me," Robin shouted back as he landed amidst the other Titans. "Another fighter, so stay sharp—there's got to be at least one more out there, probably a shooter or…"

Robin was interrupted by a pair of muzzle flashes, and Raven only just had time to erect a shield around the team before two yellow bolts of energy impacted on it, detonating spectacularly. A third robot appeared, its design quite different from the first two—it was stockier and more angular, with a long-barrelled gun mounted in place of its head and large cannons at the end of each stubby arm. The latter were smoking.

"Those are ion cannons!" Cybog cried. "They ionize shells so that they create a catastrophic chemical reaction on contact!"

"And that's bad?" Beast Boy asked.

"Well, they'll blow you up real good," Cyborg clarified. Beast Boy nodded sagely.

"Yeah, that would be pretty bad," he admitted.

"Dammit! Just take that thing out!" Robin ordered. "Cyborg! Its armour is angled to deflect projectiles, but you might be able to punch through it!"

"I'm on it!" Cyborg called as he charged the gun-toting robot. It was slow to react, and he was within striking range in a matter of moments, but just before he could land his first punch something streaked in out of nowhere and slammed into him, sending him flying off to the side. It was a fourth robot, again quite different from the first two, as well as the third—it was just as tall as the first two, if not even taller, but much more solidly built, with a huge, almost rotund torso and thick, bulky arms that, as Cyborg had just found out, packed a hell of a punch.

"A fourth one? Shit!" Robin swore as he and the others rushed to Cyborg's aid. "Sorry, Cy, I didn't see that coming after the shooter appeared."

"No problem," Cyborg grunted with a wry grin as he hauled himself to his feet. "It's not as strong as it looks."

"A slasher, a stabber, a shooter, and a smasher—that's a pretty effective combination, and it looks like they're all programmed to support each other. This is going to be difficult," Robin called to his team. "Top priority right now is the shooter, but take any targets of opportunity you can…whoa!"

Robin was interrupted by the first robot, which suddenly charged him from behind. He dodged the robot's broad, sweeping attack and kicked off of its back armour as it passed, destabilizing it enough that Raven was able to trip it up completely with a well-placed manhole cover she flung with a wave of her hand.

"Starfire, now! While it's down! Aim for the rear armour!" Robin screamed, but despite Starfire's immediate response she was unable to hit her target. The huge smasher robot had leapt to its comrade's defence, blocking her starbolts with its bulky arms. The shooter then counterattacked, firing another ion salvo to force Starfire to the ground and following that up by opening up with its head-mounted weapon, which projected a brilliant red beam that tracked across the pavement where the Titans stood, scattering them.

"Is that a military-grade cutting laser?" Cyborg asked, managing jealousy even in the heat of combat. "Ion cannons _and_ a cutting laser? Man, why do the bad guys always get the best toys?"

"Titans! They're trying to separate us! Stay together!" Robin shouted, inwardly cursing the recent advances that had been made in military AI. Catching a glimpse of an orange and purple blur darting forwards towards the shooter robot out of the corner of his eye, Robin turned and cursed again. "Starfire! What are you doing? I said stay together!"

"I believe I have an opening to attack this 'shooter'!" Starfire called back over her shoulder. "I am engaging, I…aahhh!"

It all happened in the space of a few seconds: Starfire cried out in surprise as the stabber robot leapt at her out of nowhere, forcing her to change course. She tried to regain the advantage by turning over to launch a flurry of starbolts at her ambusher as she passed, but this was just as short-lived as her initial abortive charge—hearing the mechanical whine of an electric servo motor behind her, Starfire was only just able to change course once again to avoid the smasher as it lunged forward with its arms extended as if to grab her. She made it her new target for an even more ferocious barrage of green energy, but despite the destructive power of her starbolts they only managed to scuff and dent the heavily armoured robot's surface. Starfire was feverishly trying to come up with another plan when she heard another, much more ominous sound coming from behind her—the bass hum of an ion cannon being primed. She turned with a gasp, but too late to avoid the single glowing yellow shot. It hit her in the stomach with enough force to not only knock the wind out of her, which was something for a Tamaranean, but completely reverse her momentum, sending her rocketing back towards the smasher robot. Or at least, towards what the Titans had assumed to be a robot filling the role of a smasher—when Starfire was only a dozen or so feet away, the robot revealed its true purpose, and why Cyborg had deemed it to be "not as strong as it looks". The robot's large torso opened up, showing not the mass of motors and power supplies that was expected, but rather a small compartment that was completely empty aside from some thin padding over top of interior armour that looked just as thick as the robots exterior armour. The compartment was just big enough to fit a person inside, although not very comfortably, and as soon as Starfire unwillingly demonstrated this fact the compartment closed once again, trapping her inside.

"No! Starfire!" Robin screamed as the prison robot activated a built-in jetpack and streaked away. "_Starfire!_"

Robin sprinted forward to chase after the escaping robot, but its buzz saw armed compatriot leapt in his way with a wild swing of its weapon. Robin somehow managed to twist enough to avoid the spinning blades, but still caught a hard blow from the robot's arm which sent him sprawling back amongst the other Titans. The stabber and shooter robots moved up to support the slasher, forming a loose defensive line.

"Looks like we'll have to fight our way through these guys," Cyborg observed as he helped Robin to his feet. Robin dusted himself off and glowered.

"That's fine with me," he muttered menacingly, then sprang back towards the robots with a cry of "Titans! _GO_!" Robin flipped up and over the slasher to avoid another of its wild swings, getting just enough hang time to allow it to turn around in order to attack him again as he landed—before he did, though, Robin kicked off its front armour, taking himself just beyond the robot's reach and leaving behind a rather large yellow and black disc stuck on its chest plate.

"Cyborg! Batter up!" Robin yelled as he darted towards the stabber robot, readying his staff. The disc beeped discreetly and then exploded, far more spectacularly than anything anyone habitually carried on their belt ought to, sending the slasher flying backwards towards Cyborg, where the mechanical teen had uprooted a nearby lamp post and stood ready. As the robot neared him, he swung as hard as he could, hitting it in the back where its weaker rear armour simply crumpled. Its power core exploded, tearing the robot apart and sending shards of metal in all directions. Cyborg grinned.

Robin, meanwhile, was viciously attacking the stabber, deftly avoiding its attacks while landing dozens of his own, leaving multiple dents in its armour. Finally, as the robot launched into a particularly deep lunge, Robin snaked around its extended arm and jabbed the end of his staff into the robot's relatively fragile optical sensor. Its only means of seeing smashed to pieces, the stabber robot was helpless to avoid the city bus that Raven slammed into it from above—if it was not destroyed, it was most certainly trapped beneath several tons of twisted metal.

Again, Robin darted forward, this time homing in on the shooter, the last of the three blockading robots. He only managed to get within twenty feet before it opened fire, however, and he was forced to evade. He sprinted to the side, staying only a few inches ahead of the robot's cutting laser, ion bolts exploding all around him, when he noticed a small green hummingbird flitting unnoticed towards the robot. Robin grinned nastily as Beast Boy dropped down within only a few feet of the shooter, changing into a T-rex as he landed. With a quick spin of his body, Beast Boy had knocked the shooter a good ten feet through the air with his tail, and then lunged at the robot, catching it in his mouth after allowing it to bounce off the pavement only once. With a quick crunch the robot was no longer a threat to anyone, and Beast Boy tossed it aside with a casual flick of his head before resuming his human form.

"Right," Robin growled as the others rallied around him. "Which way did that last robot go?"

**OOO**

The prison robot sped along a city street, kept several feet above the pavement by its jetpack. The street was relatively empty—the robot had left the busy downtown area and entered the financial district, and since it was after business hours there was hardly anyone around. Aside from the occasional car, there were only a few pedestrians to witness the robot's passing. It ignored them, as well as the constant banging coming from within its armoured compartment, and continued to cruise towards some destination known only to it. Had its creators thought to build it with optical sensors in the back as well as the front, though, the robot might have seen its pursuers, who it would most likely _not_ have ignored.

"Cyborg! Now!" Robin screamed and Cyborg, who was being carried by a pterodactyl-formed Beast Boy, blasted the robot's jetpack with his sonic cannon. The robot immediately dropped to the pavement, its momentum causing it to pitch forward as its feet dug in—it seemed to be built for this, however, as it simply ducked its shoulder forward and curled its bulky arms around itself, turning what might have been a wild head-over-heels tumble into a perfectly controlled sideways roll. After a moment the robot apparently deemed itself to have bled off enough of its forward momentum and halted its roll by extending one arm so it flipped up onto its feet facing the Titans. It was still moving fast enough that its feet left a pair of deep gouges in the road, and to fully stop its motion the robot had to drop one clawed arm to help, which left a pattern of smaller gouges itself. As it ground to a halt it shifted the position of its limbs slightly, loading its legs to spring forward, covering its vitals with its extended arm, and drawing its free arm back to strike—it was a highly defensive stance that still managed to maintain a significant offensive threat, and it was a testament to the effectiveness of the robot's programming that it was able to drop into such a perfectly engineered stance within mere moments of registering a threat. All that did not matter one bit.

"Titans! Hold it!" Robin barked, and his teammates all seized the robot in their own way. Raven encased it in the glowing black aura of her powers, Beast Boy changed into an octopus and wrapped every available tentacle around its limbs, and Cyborg simply ran up behind it and put it in a rough equivalent to a full Nelson. Bound up like this, the robot was completely helpless. Robin grinned and strolled up to within a few feet of it.

"Straighten it up," he ordered quietly, and the other Titans forced the robot out of its stance, wrenching it completely upright to expose its armoured torso plate. Robin ran his fingers over the robot's armour, finding and tracing the seam where it had opened up to expose its internal compartment. He smiled nastily and took a few small discs from his belt.

"I always did kind of want to be a surgeon," Robin said with a chuckle as he placed the discs on various points along the seam in the robot's armour. After a few seconds, a small red light began blinking on each disc, and the metal surrounding them began to melt. Finally, each disc exploded in a series of muted thumps, causing the armour plates on the robot's torso to separate slightly. Robin frowned—he had hoped that the armour would just split apart like the shell of a nut, but it seemed that it was tougher than he had anticipated.

"Well, so much for surgery," Robin murmured with a shrug as he extended his staff and jammed it between the armour plates. He heaved on the end of the staff, separating the plates only a little bit more, and just as he thought he would have to try something else, Robin saw flickering green light shining through the crack in the robot's armour. His eyes widened and he jumped clear, drawing questioning looks from his teammates, but any questions they might have asked were answered a split second later, when the robot's torso plate was blown clean off from the inside in a burst of intense green energy and Starfire flew out.

"Titans!" Robin began, but he was interrupted by a wordless scream of rage from the newly freed alien girl as she unleashed a powerful beam of green energy at her former captor. Surprised by Starfire's ferocity, the other Titans released the robot just in time for it to be hit by a second, even more powerful blast which sent it hurtling backwards. Even as it attempted to get back to its feet, the robot found itself on the receiving end of a series of brutal attacks—Starfire had sped forward and was now battering it with her bare fists. She finished her assault by seizing the robot's head, planting her feet on its shoulders and heaving with all her might, tearing the robot's head right off in a shower of sparks and a spray of coolant and lubricant fluids. Starfire stood for a moment holding the head, spattered with oil, as the robot's body tipped over and fell noisily onto its back and her fellow Titans stared at her in shock. She turned to look at them, tossing the head carelessly over her shoulder.

"I do not like being…_enclosed_," Starfire said darkly. The other Titans just continued to stare wordlessly.

"L-let's…let's go home," Robin stuttered after nearly a minute of shocked silence, and with this Starfire brightened, smiling as happily as ever.

**OOO**

"…and then when I saw the robot's armour crack open I fired my most powerful starbolt and was able to burst free," Starfire said, just finishing her explanation of what had happened when she was inside the robot. "And, well, you all saw what happened after that."

"Yeah, you tore its head off!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "That was _awesome_!"

"I didn't know you had it in you to be so…_violent_," Raven added.

"Tamaran _is_ a planet of warriors, and I did say that I do not like being enclosed," Starfire reminded them. "And besides, was it not merely a robot?"

"I suppose so…" Raven murmured. She did not look convinced, but let the matter rest for now.

"So, you're fine?" Robin asked, and Starfire nodded. "Good. Is there anything else?"

"Yeah, I've got something," Cyborg said. "I thought I recognized the designs of those robots, so I did some checking. They're from S.T.A.R. labs. They were developed a few years ago for the military but never went into full production. Quite a few were still made, though, and they were pretty popular with private security forces and some of the wealthier militia groups for a while. These models are outdated now, though, so no new ones are being made, although S.T.A.R. labs still manufactures replacement parts."

"Perfect. If we find out who bought those robots, then we'll know who sent them after us—good work, Cyborg," Robin said with a grin, but Cyborg shook his head.

"Don't congratulate me yet," he muttered ruefully. "The robots' serial numbers had been removed, and they were rigged up so their hard drives were completely burned out as soon as they were destroyed. I can't get you any definite info on when they were made, who bought them, or anything else." Robin frowned, creasing his brow and steepling his fingers in front of his face as he thought for a moment.

"That may not be that big of a problem, actually," he said finally. "Cyborg, you know S.T.A.R. better than I do, so check up with them to see who still owns models like these—if they still make replacement parts then they'll probably have a list of customers. Then ask around the owners to see if any of them sold any recently, and where. That might narrow it down enough to find our guy. Let me know what you find."

Cyborg nodded, and since nobody else had any business to bring up Robin declared the team meeting adjourned. The Titans all separated to do their own things throughout the tower—Cyborg went to his room to start on his research, Raven went to her room to read, Beast Boy went to the living room to watch some late night cartoons, and Starfire went to have a shower, or, as she put it, 'cleanse herself after her ordeal'. Robin was left alone in his briefing/control room, staring at the images of the robots he had pulled up on his computer screen.

"Who the hell are you, and what do you want with Starfire?" he whispered.

_-End Chapter Two-_

**Author's Note:** It took me a lot longer to write this chapter than I thought it would. I started out with some serious writer's block on how to begin the chapter, and I'm still not completely happy with that first paragraph, but I've read it over about a dozen times now and I can't figure out how to say what I want to say any better. I kind of liked the dialogue that followed, and I think my little experiment with the "stick with one character" method of writing group fight scenes at least showed some promise, so all-in-all I'm happy with how it turned out. Also, I've been told that the best thing for my writing right now would be lots of practice, and I'm not sure that endlessly agonizing over how to make every little bit of every chapter _perfect_ would count, because I'd probably end up writing a hell of a lot less.

Anyway, some character notes: I know that some people might object to me making Beast Boy into a typical breast-fixated teenaged boy (especially considering his infatuation with Terra, who may well be in the negative cup sizes from the look of her). However, my interpretation of Beast Boy is that he's had a pretty shitty childhood, all things considered, but he covers it up by acting out and trying to look tough. 'Manly' comments about boobs would be a part of this. The only other thing I think might be controversial would be Raven's response to Beast Boy's comments, but I justify it thusly: a) Beast Boy bugs her—whether this is a sign of attraction or not, the bottom line is that he can push her buttons; b) this is the second time she's had her appearance called into question by a teammate (remember 'Switched'?); c) honestly, the girl's got some anger issues. It's understandable, of course—I mean, she's got a little red version of herself in her head yelling at her all the time about how "hatred will rule" and all that. I don't know about you, but that would make me kind of irritable.

Yeah, so now is about when the whole "Starfire acting weird" thing starts up. _That_ particular little bit of out-of-character is an integral part of the plot, so I'm not going to explain it just yet. And if you think she's acting out-of-character now, just wait until you see what I have in mind for the _next_ chapter. Speaking of the next chapter—the Hive Five will be making an appearance! God dammit, why are all supervillain group names so horribly bad?

**To My Reviewers:**

falyn anjel: Oh, yes, more about the good doctor will be coming in the next few chapters! Well, he's not really all that good, but you know what I mean. It probably won't be in the very next chapter, but eventually he will be back.

samanth2121: Thanks! I will try to!

Blackbird: Glad you didn't miss this. Ah, clones. Good old clones. Whether or not that little tidbit will have any impact on the story will be revealed in a few chapters, I'm afraid, so I can't say just yet. Of course, I realize that this is just as good as an admission that it _will_ impact the story, but whatever. I will endeavour to stay away from that terrible, Spider-Man-esque "the clone was really the real one all along" plot twist. I mean, Ben Reilly was a nice guy and all, but I am still so very glad he's dead so Peter can get back to, you know, _being Spider-Man_. Cripey, that was an awful storyline.


	3. Black and Blue

(Disclaimer: The Teen Titans are the property of DC comics and maybe Warner Brothers. There might be some other people out there with claims to them, but I'm not one of them.)

**Preliminary Author's Note:** This is a long one, both to make up for my extreme delay in posting it and because I wanted to put all this stuff together anyway. I hope it's not insanely long, but you might want to give yourself a bit of time to read it anyway.

_-Chapter Three: Black and Blue-_

"Alright, everyone! You have three choices!" Beast Boy announced, holding up four fingers in a spectacularly failed attempt at increasing the drama of his statement. "Which will it be: 'Angry Dave: Beyond the Lightning Sphere', 'Those!', or all nine episodes of the Flea live-action TV show?" He counted off the choices on his fingers and stared briefly at the fourth, extra finger with a look of complete incomprehension before quickly hiding it behind his back and grinning like a maniac.

"Tell me again why we let _him_ pick out the movies?" Raven asked sardonically. "I mean, if I'm a subconscious masochist or something I'd really like to know about it."

"When we agreed to have a team movie night once a week, we decided to rotate who picked the movies, and it's Beast Boy's turn this week," Robin replied, his exasperation clear in his voice despite the fact that he had fully expected these kinds of comments from Raven. "Sorry, but you'll just have to live with it."

"Yeah! I had to watch your dumb old horror movie two weeks ago!" Beast Boy added. "That was so lame! And you told me it was about vampires!"

"It was! We watched 'Nosferatu'! It's a classic!" Raven protested indignantly.

"It was _lame_!" Beast Boy repeated.

"Guys! Shut up! Beast Boy's given us our choices, so let's just _pick_ one already!" Robin shouted, and that seemed to work—at least, Raven's complaints subsided to a dull muttering and Beast Boy was mercifully silent, if a bit pouty. The Titans eventually rejected 'Angry Dave' ("I've seen that, like, _fifteen times_ already, man.") and 'Those!' ("Haven't we actually _fought_ giant radioactive termites before?"), finally settling on the Flea.

"A _comedy_? And a _television show_, no less? Can't I just go read or something?" Raven asked, but Robin shook his head.

"It's _team_ movie night, Raven—the reason we have team movie night is to make sure we do at least _something_ together every week," he explained. "Besides, you might like this show's sense of humour."

"Yeah, right. And didn't we already go see a movie and stuff together once this week?" Raven continued, obviously unconvinced, but that wasn't all—she had started covertly reading the new Harry Potter book, and she wanted to finish it _tonight, dammit_. She figured that the sooner she finished with it, the less likely it was that she would get caught reading it by one of the others. In fact, Robin already knew, having noticed the quick flashes of guilt in her expression whenever Beast Boy and Starfire were discussing the book—he wouldn't tell, of course, but it was still a source of mild amusement for him.

"That was an extra celebration—_this_ is movie night, which we agreed would happen every week. Rules are rules. Besides, Starfire got kidnapped that night, so I don't think it should count," Robin replied, and when Raven scowled at him he smiled innocently and added: "Why? Do you have some book about wizards that you want to finish?" The question had its desired effect: Raven froze like a statue, her eyes wide with horror and fixed on Robin.

"Um…n-n-no, wh-what makes you think that?" Raven stammered, smiling nervously in a futile attempt to cover the fact that she had quite uncharacteristically broken into a cold sweat.

"Oh, nothing. I just thought you might have some magic research or something you were doing," Robin said airily, his smile widening—as much as he liked and respected Raven, it could be _awfully_ fun to mess with her.

"Oh, yes! Research! Yeah," Raven breathed, relieved that Robin had allowed her such a convenient way out. "No, I don't have any ongoing research right now. Nope. None at all."

"Good! The Flea it is, then! Beast Boy, start it up!" Robin said, and settled back onto the couch next to Starfire. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Raven glaring at him, but he knew that she would be keeping her snide comments to herself for the rest of the night, and if getting her annoyed would keep an argument from starting he was willing to risk it. Besides, he could always talk her down later. Out of the _other_ corner of his eye Robin could see his other teammates eyeing him and Raven inquisitively, but thankfully they said nothing, and once the show started they were all too absorbed to give it any further thought. In fact, they were all so absorbed in watching the show that they didn't even notice when Starfire did something very unusual—she casually scooted over in her seat and leaned against Robin, resting her head on his shoulder and twining the fingers of one hand through his while simultaneously hugging his arm against her chest so his bicep was nestled snugly between her breasts. At least, Cyborg and Beast Boy didn't notice—Starfire and Robin did, for obvious reasons, and Raven could not _help_ but notice, since her empathy made nearby teenaged hormonal urges about as distracting for her as an enthusiastic gorilla that had been given a pair of cymbals. However, Raven could not take the time to savour the fact that it was now _Robin_ who had frozen up like a statue, his masked eyes wide with uncomprehending shock, because she had a far more pressing concern.

You see, empathy is a sense of sorts, like sight, hearing, touch, and so on. Furthermore, it is not for nothing that it, along with various other esoteric senses like precognition and remote viewing, is called a 'second sight' or 'inner eye', for empathy behaves like normal sight in many respects. For instance, just as the eye is naturally drawn to a riot of movement and colour, so too is empathy drawn to its respective stimulus—that is, the empathic sense is drawn towards strong emotions. Given the normal view that the inner workings of one's mind, such as emotions, are private in the extreme and must never be interfered with or observed by others without permission, this tendency of empathy to 'stare' at sources of strong emotion often leads to inadvertent breaches of this privacy. It was this that Raven now found herself fighting a desperate inner battle to avoid.

_Don't pry! It's none of my business!_ she thought ferociously as she struggled to rein in her powers. _Don't pry, don't pry, don't pry, don't…_

…_desiresurpriseembarrassmentlongingfearreliefpleasure…_

_Gah! Stupid empathy! Quit it!_ Raven thought, mentally kicking herself for her slip. _Azarath metrion zinthos. Azarath metrion zinthos._

…_calmdesirecomfortpleasuresatisfactionpleasurepleasure…_

_Crap! He's settling in! Azarathmetrionzinthosazarathmetrionzinthosazarath…_

Suddenly the alarm went off (_…pleasuresurprisedisappointment…_), causing them all to nearly jump out of their seats. Raven heaved a sigh of relief as the swirling vortex of emotions emanating from Starfire and Robin blew itself out and disappeared amidst the normal, much easier to ignore background hum of everyday feelings, although Starfire was still generating a fair amount of disappointment and frustration.

"Oh, thank heaven _that's_ over," Raven muttered as she put her hood up.

"Hey! The Flea isn't _that_ bad!" Beast Boy protested, mistakenly thinking that Raven's relief stemmed from the interruption of the show, but before they could work out this misunderstanding Robin seized control of the situation as usual.

"Titans! _GO!_" he called, and then they were off.

**OOO**

_Half an hour ago…_

"It's embarrassing!" Gizmo cried from the passenger seat of the stolen van. "I'm a big-time supervillain, and I'm being driven around by a _girl_? What's Control Freak gonna think when he hears about this?"

"Big-time? Since when? And it's not _my_ fault your feet can't reach the pedals," Jinx pointed out from her place behind the wheel. "Besides, isn't Lex Luthor's chauffeur a girl?"

"Well, yeah, but that's different—_she's_ a trophy goon. Her main job isn't to be his driver, it's to stand around and look pretty so other villains will get jealous that Luthor's nailing her," Gizmo retorted.

"_I_ heard Luthor actually trusts and respects her," Jinx said, then added: "At least, as much as he can trust and respect _anyone_."

"Yeah, I hear a lot of _crap_, too, but _I_ don't go around _believing_ it," Gizmo spat. "Now move over, girlie, and let someone with some actual _experience_ drive."

"Why, you misogynistic little…" Jinx began, but then paused to digest what Gizmo had said before starting anew on an even higher plateau of indignant rage. "_Experience?_ What experience do you have, you little snot?"

"Are you kidding? I stole the T-Car once!" Gizmo shouted back.

"Oh, yeah, and didn't you get your scrawny butt kicked for that?" Jinx taunted. "Besides, the T-Car's all high-tech and shit—_this_ thing doesn't have anywhere for you to plug into, genius, so unless you can reach the pedals, _which you can't_, you can't drive."

"Ah, fine. But can't one of the others drive?" Gizmo asked, reluctantly conceding that Jinx had a point. Jinx turned to look at the other members of the Hive Five crowded in the back of the van—there were only three of them, but Mammoth was a crowd all by himself. After a brief moment of appraisal, Jinx turned back to Gizmo with an expression of extreme distaste.

"You have _got_ to be shitting me," Jinx sneered. "Mammoth can't even fit in the driver's seat, See-More—well, as I'm _sure_ you remember from the last time we let him drive, people who can see through solid objects should _not_ get behind the wheel of a car."

"Hey! That was an accident!" See-More protested, but Jinx ignored him and continued.

"And Private Hive…well, do you _really_ want _him_ driving?" she asked.

"Hoowah! Send me _in_, coach! Private Hive is _ready_! Oh, yeah!" Private Hive shouted, punching his fists in the air enthusiastically. Gizmo considered this for a moment.

"No, I guess that _would_ be a bad idea," he admitted. "I _still_ think it's embarrassing to be driven around by a _girl_, though."

"Yeah, and couldn't we have stolen something nicer than this shitty old van?" Mammoth piped up from where he was sprawled on the very back seat.

"Hey, yeah! Like a Porsche or something fast like that so we could get away easier! A blue one!" See-More added.

"Private Hive likes blue!" Private Hive shouted, apparently utterly convinced that this was a highly valuable contribution to the conversation.

"You _morons_! Do you _really_ think we'd all fit in a _Porsche_?" Jinx screamed. "Look around, dumbasses! We all only _barely_ fit in this _van_—a sports car is _not_ an option!"

"Well, could we at least steal a _blue_ van?" See-More asked. "I mean, tan is a nice colour and all, very inconspicuous, but blue—now _that's_ a colour."

"No! No blue van! We've already stolen this one! Looking for a blue one would just waste time!"

"How about one with a bathroom in it or something?"

"Mammoth, there is no such goddamn thing as a van with a bathroom! Besides, it's a ten minute drive—just _hold_ it, for the love of…"

"_Private Hive likes blue!_"

"I swear to _God_, you guys are _idiots_," Jinx sighed and put her head in her hands. "Look, this is _my_ plan, so just do what I say and everything will work out. It's simple: we just drive to the bank, go in, rob it, and get out before anyone even realizes we were there. After that, you can buy all the blue vans you goddamn well want, okay?"

"I think your plan is kinda sucky," Mammoth whined. "I don't get to smash enough stuff." Jinx moaned and banged her head on the steering wheel, accidentally sounding the horn and drawing some funny looks from passers-by.

"Just…just stick to the damn plan," she growled, and started the van. As she drove away, Jinx noticed that thick clouds had begun to roll in, and hoped that this wasn't a bad sign.

**OOO**

_Twenty minutes ago…_

"Everyone on the ground! This is a robbery! Nobody move and we'll be out of here before you know it!" Jinx shouted as the bank doors closed behind her, and her words had immediate effect, especially once people recognized her and her 'associates'. Customers screamed and dove to the floor while the bank staff, who were much more used to this sort of thing, mostly just sighed and calmly lay face down. Jinx grinned—things were going perfectly.

"Nobody bother getting up, we can open the safe ourselves—Mammoth! You're on!" Jinx shouted. Mammoth nodded and lumbered off to the rear of the bank. Only a moment or two after he disappeared into the back there was the horrible sound of metal tearing and concrete crumbling, and then a whoop of victory.

"Hey, guys! There's a lot of stuff in here!" Mammoth called excitedly, still out of sight in the back of the bank.

"Of course there is—I planned it perfectly!" Jinx gloated with a big grin on her face. "And you guys are actually _sticking_ to the plan. I'm amazed that you haven't done something yet…"

"Oooh! S 'n' M pens!" Private Hive exclaimed as he tugged experimentally on one of the chained bank pens.

"…to make us look stupid," Jinx finished with a resigned sigh, her face falling.

"Hey, how stupid can we be if we just pulled off a perfect bank robbery?" Gizmo pointed out. "We've thought of everything!"

"_We_?" Jinx spluttered. "_I_ thought of everything!"

"Yeah, yeah," Gizmo said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Whatever. Oh, and you can stop pressing that silent alarm button, sludge head—I'm jamming it." The bank manager froze, his finger hovering over the button, then threw himself back to the ground with his hands over his head, shaking uncontrollably. Gizmo laughed and started poking him with one of the mechanical spider legs protruding from his backpack.

"Did you really think a genius like me wouldn't be able to figure out how to mess up your security system?" he goaded the prostrate bank manager.

"Hey! It's _my_ plan! _I'm_ the genius!" Jinx protested.

"Whatever. This bank uses the Protech 120 D security system, right?" Gizmo continued with a confident smile.

"Um…no," the manager said.

"Yeah, so the flaw in the 120 D is a vulnerability to…" Gizmo began to explain, then stopped. "Wait, what did you say?" The manager gulped nervously.

"We d-don't use the P-P-Protech s-system anymore," he stammered, acutely aware that he was talking back to a supervillain. "W-we switched over t-t-two weeks ago."

"Really? To what?"

"W-Wayne Enterprises Securotron 8000 A," the manager said, with a little more confidence now that it appeared that his death would not be immediately forthcoming. "We decided to upgrade after we were robbed by Billy Numerous a few months ago."

"Wow. The Wayne Securotron 8000 A? That's pretty high-end," Gizmo admitted, a bit of awe creeping into his voice. "There's no way I could jam that with what I've got right now—why didn't I hear about this?"

"We've been keeping it pretty hush-hush," the manager said with a shrug, which was an interesting manoeuvre when performed when lying face-down on the floor. Gizmo nodded knowingly.

"Huh. The Securotron 8000," he mused aloud. "Wasn't Gerrick Westcliffe the lead designer on that? He worked on pretty much all of Wayne's other security projects, so…"

"Look, as much as I love all this geek-talk, can I just clarify something?" Jinx interrupted. "Gizmo, am I to understand that this bank does _not_ have the security system you thought it did? And that what you've done to jam their silent alarm does not work against the security system they _do_ have?" Gizmo nodded and Jinx continued on to her main point. "Then, doesn't that mean that _the cops will be here any second?_"

"Oh, yeah," Gizmo said as realization slowly dawned on him through the mists of technical gibberish that made up most of his mind. "Yeah, I guess so."

As if on cue, an entire precinct's worth of police cars suddenly screeched to a halt outside the bank, and several dozen heavily-armed cops leapt out and brought their weapons to bear.

"Oh, crap," Jinx muttered, and with that, it began to rain.

**OOO**

"Alright, Captain Alvarez, what's the situation?" Robin asked as he dismounted from the R-Cycle, stowing his helmet in its compartment under the seat.

"Robin, glad you could make it," the police captain, a dark-haired woman in her late thirties, said. Despite her rank, she had foregone a uniform in favour of nondescript standard-issue police body armour—this had the double benefit of making her harder to pick out of the mass of other cops as well as keeping some of the rain out. "We've got a hostage situation inside the bank—sixteen people being held by the Hive Five. They've made no demands yet, but they've blocked off all the windows and cut all surveillance cams in the building, so unless I send in a recon team we've got no eyes on the inside."

"That's standard procedure for Hive agents taught in their academy," Cyborg said.

"You know Hive procedures?" Alvarez asked. Cyborg nodded.

"Yeah, I spent some time undercover in their academy a while back, before it we busted it up," he replied. "It's funny though—that's about all the Hive academy ever taught about hostage situations. They're much more of a hit-and-run organization. If they can't win in one decisive move they usually fall back and regroup for their next move." Robin scratched his chin, deep in contemplation while Alvarez continued.

"Anyway, like I said, they've blocked off the windows, so snipers are a no-go—and even if the windows were wide open, the rain would make accurate shooting difficult enough to not want to try it in a hostage situation," she said, her tone tight with frustration. "We've been sitting here for about twenty minutes now, and we've got nothing. Any ideas?"

"Hive operatives are trained for hit-and-run, so they would never get themselves into something like this unless they completely lost control of the situation," Robin mused aloud. "Which means they're at a disadvantage—off balance, out of their element."

"A frontal assault then?" Alvarez suggested. "If they aren't ready for us, we could just sweep them out."

"No, that would put the hostages at too much risk," Robin responded evenly. "The Five are still highly trained and very powerful, so they won't go down that easily—in even the best case scenario a few hostages will get caught in the crossfire. We need to get them out of there somehow…"

"Captain!" shouted a police officer as he ran towards them. "We've found their vehicle. It's a van parked near the back of the bank, on Nelson street—it was reported stolen not two hours ago. Should we impound it?"

"No!" Robin cried suddenly, and he grinned. "Leave it. I've got an idea." Captain Alvarez gave him an incredulous look, then realization crossed her face.

"Of course…if we leave them a single way of escaping, we can be prepared to jump them when they take it," she said, then frowned. "No, wait—that's way too obvious, they'd never fall for it."

"No, it'll work," Robin insisted adamantly. "First, their training focuses on hit-and-run, so their tactics are all wrong for this and they'll favour running—second, they're not stupid (well, not all of them), so they'll know they're at a disadvantage, and they'll want to get out of the bank any way they can—and third, well, let's just say we can provide some _extra incentive_ for them to leave."

"I thought you said a frontal assault was out of the question?" Alvarez asked, not quite convinced yet.

"I never said anything about a frontal assault, now did I?" Robin said with a nasty grin. "There are _lots_ of better ways to convince them to leave."

"We're going to _scare_ them out, aren't we?" Raven asked in her usual flat tone of voice, but the faintest hint of a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

"Got it in one," Robin replied, his grin widening. "Cyborg, Beast Boy, Starfire, you three go with Captain Alvarez to set the trap by the Five's van—back the cops up as much as you can. I know it doesn't seem like much, but your powers can be pretty loud and obvious, so you're all best on the outside." He turned to Raven. "Raven, you're with me—we'll infiltrate the bank and do our best to put them into paroxysms of terror."

"Para…what? Is that even a word?" Beast Boy asked, but Robin just glared at him. "Right! Backing up the cops! Gotcha!" Beast Boy cried and scampered off through the rain, followed closely by Cyborg and Starfire. Captain Alvarez briefly met Robin's eyes.

"Good luck, kid," she said, then turned and shouted at the nearby police officers to start getting them organized.

"You're actually looking forward to this," Raven stated calmly as Robin turned to study the structure of the bank.

"I guess so, on some level," he admitted, pushing a lock of his wet hair out of his eyes. "I've been doing the out-in-the-open superhero thing too long, I think. I'm starting to want to get back to my roots a little. Move like a shadow, strike fear into the hearts of men, that sort of thing. Follow me, we can get in through the vents on the roof—the air ducts should lead us anywhere in the building."

Before Raven could respond, Robin had whipped out his grappling hook, fired it, and was gone. She sighed and flew after him. When she landed next to him on the roof of the bank, Robin had already managed to pry the cover off of one of the larger vents.

"Why just me? Beast Boy can be quiet, too, you know—he could just turn into a bug or something," Raven pointed out as he slipped in through the opened vent.

"Yeah, he _could_ be quiet, but he usually _isn't_. It isn't in his nature," Robin replied from halfway inside the ducts. "Besides, when used right, teleportation can be the _acme_ of creepy."

"Thanks," Raven said, with a small smile. Robin grinned back at her.

"You're quite welcome," he said, then slid himself the rest of the way into the ducts. "Are you coming?"

As Raven climbed into the open vent, she caught a flash of lightning in the corner of her eye, followed closely by a rumble of thunder, and she hoped it wasn't a bad sign.

**OOO**

"…idiots, idiots, _idiots_, idiots, _IDIOTS_, idiots…" Jinx growled, half to herself. Gizmo turned to Mammoth.

"Hey, any bets on when she'll stop?" he muttered. Mammoth only shrugged, but Jinx rounded on Gizmo like one of the Furies of legend.

"_And YOU!_" she shouted, pointing at him and visibly shaking with rage. "_You're_ the biggest _idiot_ of them _all_!"

"Hey, now, let's not play the blame game, here," Gizmo back-pedalled, desperately trying to get out of the horrible fate he _knew_ Jinx had planned for him. "I think we're all equally at fault for…"

"Your _only_ job was to disable their alarms, and you_ screwed it up!_" Jinx screamed, balling up her fists in pure unadulterated anger.

"Oh, right. That. I _guess_ that was my fault," Gizmo admitted sheepishly. "But still…"

"_How_ _goddamned incompetent to you have to be to screw up your ONLY JOB?_"

"Hey, uh, did you guys hear that?" Private Hive interjected uncertainly. Jinx turned and glared daggers at him.

"What is it _now_?" she snarled, and Private Hive hid behind his shield.

"Um…I heard a noise…" he quavered lamely. Jinx advanced on him, her eyes glowing as threatening a shade of pink as there ever was, and seemed to tower above him despite her petite frame.

"_What kind of noise?_" Jinx whispered with a measured calmness that could only indicate that extreme violence was to follow. Private Hive gulped nervously.

"Um…uh…it was…uhh…kind of a…um…_bangy_ noise," he finally managed. Jinx began to twitch as though her rage was a separate being fighting its way out of her body, but See-More came to Private Hive's rescue.

"Yeah, I heard it too!" he exclaimed. "It sounded like metal falling on the floor in one of the back rooms, like a vent grating or something." Jinx pivoted on the spot to face See-More without apparently seeming to have moved, sending chills up his spine, but to his credit he didn't immediately run and hide, although he did close his eye.

"Well, then, since the two of you heard it, you're the ones who are going to check it out," Jinx ordered, calming down a little.

"Aw, _man_…" See-More began to complain, but then Jinx's eyes flared up again and he bolted, grabbing Private Hive as he passed.

"Goddamn _idiots_," Jinx muttered once they had left, and turned back to the cowering Gizmo and Mammoth. "Now, as for _you two_…"

**OOO**

"Hey, who do you think made the noise?" Private Hive asked as he and See-More searched through the back rooms of the bank.

"I don't know, it could have just been rats knocking something loose," See-More replied. Opening the door to the next room, he finally found the cause of the sound—a vent grating from the air duct on the ceiling was lying on the floor in the middle of the room. See-More bent to examine it more closely with his magnifying eye.

"Whoa. Big rats," Private Hive muttered, but See-More shook his head.

"No, rats didn't do this—none of the screws or screw-holes on the grate are stripped, so it couldn't have just been knocked off," he explained, holding up one of the screws, which were lying loose on the ground, to check it. "Someone had to unscrew these. It might have been a police recon team, but they probably wouldn't have hung around after making so much noise."

"Ha! Chicken cops, running like babies!" Private Hive crowed. "If I had caught them, I would've—_urk!_"

"Would've _what_, Hive?" See-More retorted, holding up another screw for examination. "Can't you even finish your damn _sentences_ now?" Receiving no reply, he looked up at where Private Hive had been standing. "Private Hive? You there?"

See-More stood and looked around—Private Hive was no longer in the room. Poking his head out of the door, See-More didn't see him in the hall either, nor were any of the doors to the other back rooms open.

"Huh. I wonder where he went," See-More wondered aloud, but then he frowned as a thought occurred to him. "Hey, wait a minute…"

See-More wasn't given a chance to finish his thought. The unnaturally black and vaguely bird-shaped shadow that swelled up to envelope him barely even gave him a chance to scream.

**OOO**

"…the absolute _dumbest_ pair of freaks that I have _ever_…" Jinx ranted, Gizmo and Mammoth cringing before her like a pair of frightened children, but her tirade was interrupted by a horrific scream. Their argument forgotten, all three turned to stare in shock towards the back of the bank.

"That sounded like See-More," Mammoth rumbled hesitantly.

"Man, See-More screams like a girl," Gizmo chortled, but the other two ignored him. Jinx flipped open her Hive communicator.

"See-More? You there? See-More?" The communicator's small screen showed only static. Jinx gave it the traditional whack on the casing, but there was no change. "Private Hive? Anybody? Dammit!"

"You think it's the cops?" Mammoth asked, and Jinx shook her head as she stuck the communicator back on her belt.

"No, See-More and Hive could've dealt with the cops just fine—even those two idiots could handle a S.W.A.T. team or two," she replied with a frown. "No, it's _them_. The Titans are here."

"What? But they haven't busted in a wall, and Robin hasn't made his sarcastic little opening comment, and…" Gizmo began, but stopped as a look of pure terror spread over his face. "Oh, God…no…_Robin_…"

"Yeah? So? We've dealt with Robin and the other Titans plenty of times," Jinx pointed out, eyeing the diminutive genius with disgust. "Why are you so scared?"

"Don't you get it? We can't _see_ him this time!" Gizmo shrieked, but Jinx and Mammoth only looked at each other and shrugged at his strange behaviour.

"He's not _invisible_ or anything, doofus," Jinx said.

"Yeah, what's the matter with you?" Mammoth asked. Gizmo cried out in frustration and clutched at his head.

"No! You still don't get it! _He trained with Batman!_" Gizmo yelled, throwing his arms wide. "This kind of ninja shit is _child's play_ for him! We'll be finished before we even know he's attacking us!"

As if to prove Gizmo's point, at that very instant a handful of tiny black spheres, each no bigger than a marble, landed in their midst and exploded, releasing a thick cloud of smoke. Gizmo screamed in terror and took to his heels, not even bothering to activate his backpack's mechanical legs.

"Let's get out of here! Run for the van!" Gizmo shouted back over his shoulder, and Mammoth lumbered after him, caught up in his small friend's fear.

"No, you idiots! We have to stay here! We have hostages! We have _leverage_ here!" Jinx called after them, and cursed when she realized they were already long gone. "Right, no way I'm holding off the cops _and_ the Titans by myself—time for _this_ girl to exit, stage left..._you!_ Get up!" Jinx grabbed the nearest hostage, a pretty young teller, and hauled her to her feet. The woman shrieked with fear, tears streaming down her face.

"Quiet! You're gonna be my insurance! Now _move_!" Jinx snarled, and shoved the woman roughly through the side exit and into the pouring rain.

**OOO**

"Come in, Cyborg, this is Robin. We've got a problem. Gizmo and Mammoth are heading your way as planned, but Jinx has split off in another direction—I need the three of you to head her off."

"What? Why don't you…"

"No, Raven and I have to close the trap behind Gizmo and Mammoth, or else they'll just head right back towards the hostages. We'll be fine, take Beast Boy and Starfire and cut Jinx off."

"All three of us? Why not…"

"No! She's got a hostage! You'll have to outmanoeuvre her, pin her down, and make sure the hostage stays safe all at the same time! Now _go_! She's in the alley to the east of the bank."

"Got it. On our way. Good luck. Cyborg out."

**OOO**

Jinx ran as quickly as she could through the sodden, rainy alley, but the hostage was slowing her down, stumbling and falling every few steps.

_Shit. I just HAD to pick a hostage wearing heels,_ she thought disgustedly, and pushed a strand of her pink hair out of her eyes. _And this goddamn rain is screwing up my perm, too._

As ultimately inconsequential as it might be, it _was_ true—her hair, normally kept up in her signature 'horns', was now soaking wet, and had proven to be too heavy for her black hair ribbons to continue to hold. Sticking to the back of her neck and falling into her face, it had become yet another irritant in the already incalculably long string of irritants that had made up her day. To make matters worse, her hostage tripped again and fell into a puddle, weeping and shivering.

"_Get UP, bitch!_" Jinx screamed at the poor woman. Jinx grabbed her wrist and dragged her to her feet, making sure to twist her arm just enough to make her cry out in pain as she did so. "_You MOVE, or I SWEAR I'll kill you!_"

"That's far enough, Jinx," a voice said from further up the alley. Jinx's head snapped up to find the source of the voice—Cyborg was standing only few dozen feet away, blocking her path. Jinx snarled with frustration and turned to head back down the alley, but Starfire floated down from the rooftops, blocking that path as well. Jinx swore and ran down a side alley, dragging her hostage behind her, but she soon found herself in a dead end. As Cyborg and Starfire closed in behind her, she screamed and pounded on the wall with her fists.

"You blast that wall, you could bring it all down on top of you," Cyborg said as he advanced towards the cornered criminal. "Just give up, Jinx."

"Go to hell!" Jinx shouted back. Cyborg sighed.

"Okay, then. Beast Boy…" he began, but Jinx's eyes widened and she moved like lightning, wrapping one arm around her terrified hostage and putting the other under the woman's chin. Her hand and eyes began to glow bright pink, and Cyborg froze.

"No! No Beast Boy!" Jinx snarled. "If any of you so much as make a move, I'll blow this bitch's head _clean off_, I swear!"

Beast Boy, who had been hiding as a bat on a fire escape two stories above Jinx's head dropped to the ground between Cyborg and Starfire and resumed his human form—their plan to have him attack from above to get the hostage out of Jinx's clutches was useless now. Jinx grinned wolfishly as she backed away towards the wall.

"Yeah, that's right, stay back! I mean business!" she yelled, making a threatening gesture towards her captive. Cyborg held up his hands and tried to calm Jinx down.

"Come on, Jinx, don't do this," he pleaded. "Just let her go—you're a thief, not a murderer."

"Yeah? Well maybe it's time for me to branch out!" Jinx shouted back. Cyborg edged forward a little.

"_I said_ _stay BACK!_" Jinx screamed. "_I am having a REALLY BAD DAY! My plan FAILED, my teammates are IDIOTS, I'm soaking WET, my hair is a MESS, and this BITCH won't stop FALLING OVER!_" Rage and frustration contorted her girlish features into a hideous mask, her mascara running down in dark streams over her cheeks, all framed by a mass of limp pink hair that hung to her shoulders.

"_Do NOT mess with me!_" Jinx continued. "_There is NO WAY I am ending up back in JAIL! Not on top of all this SHIT that's happened to me today!_"

"Jinx, think this through," Cyborg said, trying to get the situation back under control. "If you kill her, we'll get you anyway, and then you'll have a murder on your record. Just give up and we'll go easy on you."

"_SCREW YOU!_" Jinx screamed.

"Enough of this foolishness," Starfire muttered and pushed past Cyborg. "This is getting us nowhere."

"Starfire?" Cyborg said, too startled to try to stop her.

"Hey, _hey_! What did I just _say_? _Back off_, Red, or I'll…" Jinx began, but she was cut off by a blast of green energy from Starfire's eyes that snapped her head back. The charge of bright pink magic in her hand fired, barely missing the hostage and demolishing a chunk of brickwork as Jinx stumbled backwards. She let go of her captive and clutched at her face—blood oozed between her fingers.

"Or you will _what_, bottom-feeder?" Starfire growled. "_Bleed_ on me?"

"Byou broke mby ndose!" Jinx mumbled around her hands, her eyes wide with shock.

"I shall do more than that, scum!" Starfire shouted and charged, shouldering the terrified hostage out of the way. Jinx cried out in fear and raised her hand to defend herself, but the alien warrior was too fast. Starfire ploughed her fist into Jinx's chest, breaking several of her ribs with an audible crack and sending her flying backwards to slam into the wall at the end of the alley. Jinx gasped and coughed blood, then sagged against the wall. Starfire advanced slowly, her eyes glowing with fury.

"Star, stop! What the hell are you doing?" Cyborg asked in shock, but she did not reply. While he and Beast Boy watched in horror, she simply punched Jinx in the stomach with a power that no ordinary human could ever hope to match. Caught between a brick wall and a superstrong alien's fist, Jinx stood absolutely no chance—she vomited blood and collapsed, shaking.

"Please…stop…" Jinx moaned weakly, and reached towards Starfire, who only snorted derisively. She grabbed Jinx's arm and squeezed, crushing her wrist with ease, and before Jinx could even cry out in pain Starfire gave a savage twist, breaking the young criminal's arm in three more places. She then tossed Jinx, almost casually, against one of the other alley walls. Jinx hit her head as she fell, and between that and the pain from her injuries she finally passed out. Starfire stood over the beaten girl and smiled grimly, raising a fist and surrounding it with green energy with a thought.

"And now it is over," Starfire whispered, and drew back her hand to strike, but before she could a green-gloved hand came out of nowhere and closed over her forearm. Starfire looked over her shoulder and met a pair of masked eyes.

"Robin? What are you…?"

"Starfire, what have you done?" Robin interrupted as he stared at the badly beaten heap that was Jinx.

"Robin, I…"

"Get back to the tower to cool off. We'll talk about this later," Robin interrupted again, then turned to the other Titans and fired off a rapid sequence of orders. "Raven, do what you can to heal the worst of Jinx's injuries. Cyborg, call an ambulance. Beast Boy, see to the hostage—she's probably in shock, talk her down." They each nodded in turn and silently went about their tasks, but Starfire simply stood with a confused expression on her face.

"Robin, I do not understand, why are you…" she began, but once again Robin interrupted her.

"I said _get back to the tower!_" he shouted angrily. "Why are you still _here_?" Starfire frowned with confusion and flew off, feeling betrayed.

The ambulance soon arrived and took over where Raven had left off—Jinx was still in serious condition, but her life was no longer in danger. Beast Boy had guided the stunned former hostage to where the police were securing the area, and had gotten her a blanket and a mug of tea. Amidst all the excitement, nobody noticed that the rain had stopped.

**OOO**

Robin sighed and opened the door to his office. As he expected, Starfire was waiting for him—she stood up and looked at him expectantly as he stepped into the room, closing the door behind him.

"You wished to speak to me, Robin?" she asked innocently, almost hesitantly. Robin gritted his teeth and hardened his resolve, remembering what had just happened, before he began.

"Starfire, when you were in that robot the other day, I know you said nothing happened, but is there any way it might have done something to you?" he asked. He was speaking slowly, choosing each of his words as carefully as possible. "A hypodermic needle you didn't notice, some sort of hypnotic suggestion, a ray of some kind—anything that might have altered your behaviour in some way?"

"Well, I will admit that I was panicking perhaps more than a little, but I do not recall any such device being used upon me," Starfire said with a small frown. "Besides, I am a Tamaranean—there are few on this planet who know of the existence of my people, much less enough about Tamaranean physiology to effect such an alteration." She paused and looked thoughtfully at Robin, her frown deepening. "Why do you ask? Is there something about my behaviour that you find odd?"

"Starfire, you nearly _killed_ Jinx tonight!" Robin cried. "The only reason she's still alive is because Raven poured most of her power into healing her—Raven nearly collapsed she was so exhausted! Have you forgotten about that already?"

"No, I have not forgotten," Starfire stated evenly. "And Raven need not have exerted herself so."

"What? Starfire, if she hadn't, Jinx would have _died_!"

"That is a bad thing?"

Robin stopped and stared in horror at Starfire, hoping that it was all some sick attempt at a joke, but she just stood there, looking at him with a quizzical expression on her face.

"Of—of _course_ it's a bad thing, Starfire!" Robin almost shouted when he finally found his voice again. "You're talking about _murder_! We're supposed to be protecting people and upholding the law, we can't go around playing judge, jury, and executioner! We have to let the law handle her!"

"Send her back to jail, you mean?"

"Yes! That's exactly what I mean!"

"And this jail, its purpose is to contain or reform criminals, correct?"

"Yes!"

"Then this jail does not succeed. Your 'law' _fails_, Robin."

"_What?_" Robin's mouth fell open in shock.

"The law you uphold fails," Starfire repeated. "It does not do what is necessary to ensure the safety of those who live under its protection. We have put Jinx and her comrades in jail many times, yet they have never reformed, nor does it appear that they will do so at any point in the foreseeable future. Also, jail does not seem to be able to contain them, for they always escape to hurt more people. You say you wish to protect people—it seems the only way to do that is to _remove_ the threat, not submit it over and over to some ineffectual 'law'. On Tamaran, when a violent criminal reoffends, there is only ever one punishment: immediate execution. When I first arrived here, I disagreed with that practice, believing it to lack compassion, but now, having seen the painful inadequacy of your compassionate law, I see that the only way to ensure the safety of the innocent is to eliminate those who would harm them."

She held Robin's gaze throughout the entirety of her speech, her face hard, her head held high, letting her royal heritage show in every aspect of her tone and body language. She seemed so certain, but he still just had to check one last time.

"So you don't regret what you did?" Robin asked.

"My only regret is that you stopped me," Starfire replied. Robin sighed resignedly—he had hoped that that would not be her answer, but now he knew that anything he might say as her friend would be futile. He let go of his shock, his disappointment, his sense of betrayal. He knew what he had to do. This was business.

"Starfire, are you a Titan?" he asked quietly.

"I beg your pardon?" Starfire said, the slightest hint of uncertainty intruding into her expression. Robin looked directly into her eyes, his face grim.

"I said, are you a member of this team?"

"I…Yes, Robin, I do not…"

"Then as team leader, I am giving you a _direct order_: never, ever repeat what you did to Jinx tonight, under _any_ circumstances," Robin said, no louder than before but with a commanding tone that Starfire had never heard him use before. "If you use what I regard to be unnecessary force again, you will be off the team. Do you understand?"

"Robin, I…"

"_Do you understand?_"

He had raised his voice. Only to a normal speaking volume, but until he had, Starfire had not been aware of just how quietly he had been talking, and the effect was considerable. Her regal posture deflated slightly, and she found herself no longer able to meet his eyes.

"I understand," Starfire said, fuming inwardly. Robin nodded and turned away to look out of the window at the Jump City skyline, folding his hands behind his back. He paused for a moment to let the sight of the city, visible this late in the evening only as a darker shadow against the night sky, calm him before continuing.

"I want you to report to Cyborg in the infirmary first thing in the morning for a full physical," Robin ordered. "If there _is_ something wrong with you, I want to know it. And if there _isn't_, well, I want to know that, too. Other than that, however, you will be confined to your room for a full week. I do _not_ want to have to enforce this. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir," Starfire muttered as she glowered at his back.

"Good. You are dismissed."

Starfire turned stiffly on her heel and marched out of the room, leaving Robin standing alone, staring out the window. He heard the door slide closed behind him, and then a dull thump as Starfire punched the wall a moment later.

**OOO**

_There is blood on all the shoes you've worn_

_From the people you've been stepping on_

_There is blood in all the things you say_

_I won't hate you if you go away_

-From "Blood on Our Hands", by Death From Above 1979.

_-End Chapter Three-_

**Author's Note:** How's _this_ for Starfire being out of character? I say, God _damn_!

I've been delayed for quite a while, as some may have noticed. This is mostly because of school starting up again, as well as some unfortunate circumstances that went along with that. In other words, my computer konked out on me. Word to the wise: letting a computer sit in someone's basement all summer, unused, might be a bad idea. Also, spyware is the devil. But anyway, I've got my computer back, so here I go again. On my own. It's a song reference, people!

About Beast Boy's movie choices: "Angry Dave: Beyond the Lightning Sphere" is a reference to "Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome"; "Those!" is a reference to the classic giant radioactive ants movie "Them!"; and "The Flea" is a reference to "The Tick", which I would heartily recommend in either its cartoon or live action form. The live action show was a bit more mature, by the way, and did only run for nine episodes.

About Raven reading Harry Potter: I _swear_ that when I wrote this part it was actually topical. That's what I get for taking so long, I guess.

About my take on Raven's powers: I'm making this shit up as I go.

About the Hive Five: I have to say, out of all of the so-called Hive Five, I think Jinx has the most potential for development as a character. Gizmo is kind of overexposed in the show, Mammoth is just the big dumb strong guy (although bringing his sister Shimmer in might be interesting…), Private Hive is the_ other_ dumb strong guy (not as strong, but he has a shield!), and See-More is just a walking, talking X-ray Specs joke. Maybe it's just by comparison, but Jinx seems a lot more interesting. Or maybe I just like evil girls. (A wise man would, of course, know that there is no other kind of girl—however, an even wiser man would know better than to say that so girls might hear. I'm going to go board up my door now.) Anyway, I kind of see the Five as an even more dysfunctional reflection of the Titans, although exactly who would correspond to whom in that scheme is kind of a mystery to me. In addition to that, my take on the Five is that they are a team of superpowered teen delinquents—not really supervillains _per se_, at least not in the sense of Slade or even Brother Blood, but kind of like a little club formed by a bunch of unemployed evil minions who all just happen to be too young to buy alcohol.

On Robin's use of stealth: I am most definitely of the school of thought that thinks Batman kicks ass. Ninja stealth shit is just cool in general, and I'm a bit irritated that Robin doesn't make more use of that in the show. Then again, he _is_ wearing red, yellow, and green. Not the best choice of colours for the uniform of a sidekick to a dark, brooding, stealthy superhero, if you ask me. But, of course, Bob Kane didn't, me not having been born yet, and all. That bastard. (I'm just kidding—Mr. Kane is my good buddy. I call him B-Dog.) (I'm just kidding about that, too.)

On Robin's behaviour at the end: Let's cut right to the chase here—I see Robin as a warrior, plain and simple. And in the Sun Tzu's Art of War sense, too, not that crazy honour-obsessed crap sense. He's a dedicated guy doing a tough job that regularly puts his life in danger. This being the case, he can't afford to be slack about his work—if there's something that is a threat or a liability, he has to deal with it as efficiently as possible, or he'll probably die. This leads to a kind of 'military discipline' approach. Now, the other Titans are his friends, so they're usually spared this kind of thing since he can talk to them as friends without having to pull rank, as it were, but if that fails, like it does here, he won't hesitate to resort to using his authority as team leader. This is _not_ the Robin who lost his temper and argued like a child with Cyborg in "Divide and Conquer" (which is one of my least favourite episodes, by the way).

**To My Reviewers:**

StarSoSweet: Thanks. I guess Star's not so sweet now, is she! Ha ha! God, I need to get out more.

TDG3RD: Starfire-related strangeness abounds! Psychosis, anyone? Thanks.

Blackbird: After this, now I _really_ wouldn't want to get Starfire pissed off at me. It's true about the differences between the comic and cartoon versions of her, as well as a lot of the other characters, actually. I've started reading more DC stuff now, so I'm seeing a lot more of these characters outside of the show, and sometimes they are _very_ different.

Stollhofen125: Thanks. Hopefully it won't take me so damn long to get my next chapter up.


	4. Hide and Seek

(Disclaimer: No, I don't own the Titans; nor Batman, either. I probably don't have to keep saying this, but it gives me a narcissistic little thrill to think that there's some DC comics lawyer out there just watching my every move, waiting for me to slip up with these disclaimers. It makes me feel important.)

_-Chapter Four: Hide and Seek-_

"Sounds serious," Batman said. His masked face was up on the main viewscreen in the Titans' living room, stretched to nearly ten feet tall—Robin was speaking to him over the video communicator.

"You have a knack for understatement," Robin said as he leaned back in his seat, his arms crossed in front of him. "The cops didn't seem to care too much, but by the time they got there Raven had already healed the worst of it—honestly, if she hadn't been there Jinx would have died on the spot."

"Are you sure you have everything under control there?" Batman asked. Robin bristled at this, and had to bite back a snide response.

_Typical Bruce—first sign of trouble and suddenly I'm not capable of handling things on my own_, he thought, but out loud he said: "Yes, of course. I've spoken to Starfire and made it clear that that sort of behaviour won't be tolerated. She's been confined to her room for a full week, so hopefully that will give her time to cool off and think about things."

"And if she does it again?"

"Then she's off the team."

"Hmmm." The image of Batman's face grew smaller on the screen as he leaned back and steepled his fingers in front of him, touching his two forefingers to his lips as he considered this for a moment. "That's your final word? She does it again, she's off the team, just like that?"

"Yes. This behaviour makes her a liability, and if she's a liability then she's off the team, and that's it," Robin replied, trying to sound as confident as possible, but this was Batman he was talking to, and he knew it wouldn't be enough.

"Hmm. Easy to say—will you actually be able to carry through with that, though?"

Robin scowled and broke eye contact. He could _feel_ the undertones of the question, could see that somehow—although he had never even _mentioned_ Starfire as anything other than a valuable team member in any of his _extremely_ infrequent correspondence with his mentor—somehow Batman still _knew _what she meant to him, or had at least guessed with his usual frightening accuracy. Robin sighed and answered the question within the question.

"If this is what Starfire is really like then she isn't who I thought she was, and anything that has happened between us up to now is meaningless," Robin stated flatly, his voice devoid of emotion. "If she's a liability, she's off the team. Period."

"I see. Well, for what it's worth, I hope things work out," Batman said, his tone uncharacteristically positive. "I know how unpleasant dealing with betrayal can be."

Robin's eyes widened in mild shock at such unexpected well wishes from his otherwise dour mentor, and he only managed to mumble a quick "Thank you" before Batman cut the connection. He sat in the semi-darkness of the deserted living room for a few minutes, lost in silent contemplation, before getting up and setting off for the infirmary with a purposeful stride.

Cyborg was waiting for him there, bent nearly double over a series of monitors, all of which displayed a dizzying array of numbers and graphs and charts, all undoubtedly related to a certain Tamaranean's vital signs in some way. Other than Cyborg, however, the infirmary was deserted—the tests had long since been completed, and Starfire had returned to her confinement in her room. All that was left to do was process the data.

"Well? Anything so far?" Robin asked. Cyborg looked up at him, a grim look on his face.

"Nothing conclusive. Her brain chemistry is slightly different from what we have on file, but I don't know what's causing it, and for all I know about Tamaranean biology it might even be perfectly normal," he said and shook his head ruefully. "There is definitely something wrong with that girl, though—she was mouthing off to me the whole time, and then when the tests were done she just stormed out without even saying goodbye. Some of the stuff she said, too, was just…It was like she was a totally different person." Robin sighed.

"Keep on it," he said, putting an encouraging hand on his mechanical friend's shoulder. "Let me know if you find anything."

"Will do," Cyborg agreed, but then frowned thoughtfully. "Hey, Rob, most of these tests will take at least a couple of hours for the computer to fully process—mind if I take a break from this and continue looking into those robots?"

"That depressing, huh?" Robin asked with a small grin. Cyborg grinned back. "Not a problem. I know you prefer surfing the 'net anyway—I'm going to follow up on those robots another way, try to figure out where they were going. I'll see you in a few hours."

Cyborg nodded in acknowledgement, and he and Robin parted ways, Cyborg heading to the super-high-speed internet connection in his room, and Robin heading into the city to search in a much less high-tech way—good old-fashioned legwork.

**OOO**

Robin parked the R-Cycle in an alley, stowed his helmet, and fired a grappling hook up onto one of the surrounding buildings, locking down the bike with the remote control even as he rocketed up onto the roof. He executed a perfect forward flip in mid-air and landed lightly on the balls of his feet, right on the edge of the roof, and quickly dropped into a low crouch, sitting on his haunches. His cape fluttered around him in the breeze, and he grinned to himself.

_After all these years of training, the dramatics just sort of happen,_ Robin thought as he pulled a small pair of binoculars from his belt to get a better look at the warehouse across the street. According to the records in City Hall, it was abandoned, and by the look of it, it had been for some time—in fact, the last building inspector who had been through had recommended that it be condemned.

_Well, abandoned or not, this is the last building even remotely within Jump City limits that the prison robot could have been headed for with Starfire, given the route it was taking,_ Robin thought. He finished his initial survey, put his binoculars back on his belt, and grappled over to the warehouse. He swung in through one of the many broken windows and landed with a deft roll, rising with two birdarangs ready, but there was no need—the warehouse was deserted.

Robin slipped the birdarangs back onto his belt and thumbed the switch for the night vision filters in his mask. He looked around, the night vision tingeing everything a sickly shade of green, and took in his surroundings—he was standing on a decrepit wooden gantry that extended about ten feet away from the outer walls on all sides, and was the closest the warehouse had to a second floor. Sections of the gantry had already collapsed, and from the way it creaked under Robin's feet it seemed like the rest of it wouldn't be far behind. It looked like parts of the roof were caving in, too, as Robin could see that the floor of the warehouse was littered with more bits of wood and masonry, as well as lengths of what appeared to be rebar, obviously left by the warehouse's old and long since gone owners.

_No wonder this place is being recommended for condemnation,_ Robin thought wryly. _It looks like it could fall apart at any second—it's certainly not safe to hang around for too long. I'll just give it a quick once-over and…_

Robin's thoughts were interrupted by a particularly loud creak, and the gantry floor beneath him suddenly gave way. In less than an instant he had grabbed his staff and extended it so that it caught on either side of the hole in the floor. It bent a bit under his weight and the force of his fall, and he used this tension as an impromptu springboard to help him flip up and back out of the hole. He angled himself towards the wall next to the window he had entered from and jammed a birdarang hard into the masonry, catching himself so he hung by one hand off of the wall. He carefully craned his neck to peer into the newly created opening in the gantry, seeing that a pile of jagged pieces of wood, bricks, metal, and broken glass had been waiting for him should he have fallen all the way through.

"Well, _that_ wouldn't have been very fun," Robin muttered to himself as he pulled his grappling hook from his belt once again. He fired it at what he hoped was a reasonably reliable section of ceiling, tested the line gingerly, and then swung down to the warehouse floor, having given up entirely on the irredeemably unsafe gantry. Despite his reservations about standing even briefly under the still creaking gantry, he approached the pile of debris that lay underneath the new hole, looking for signs that it had been a trap, but found none: the pile was one of many others like it, apparently formed in an _ad hoc_ fashion as bits of the gantry and ceiling fell in, and perhaps pushed out of the way by squatters who found themselves unfortunate enough to have to spend a night or two in the crumbling warehouse. The wood of the gantry showed no signs of stress other than that of sheer age, although it disintegrated still further at his mere touch, so unless someone had been setting it up as a trap since long before the Titans had even formed, or even before Robin had been born by the looks of it, it probably wasn't a trap.

Any satisfaction that Robin could have gained from this was diminished, however, by the fact that this was the last building in the city that the prison robot could have been heading for, so if it wasn't the hideout of whoever was behind Starfire's abortive kidnapping the lead was a dead end. Robin frowned at this thought and pulled a small device from his belt. It was a miniaturized sonar imager—it worked along the same lines as the various sonar devices used to find gas, oil, water, and other deposits underground, except that _this_ particular device was bleeding-edge technology, and like all other such advanced tech it was both incredibly tiny and far more convenient to use. With a couple of quick sweeps, Robin had scanned the entire floor of the warehouse, as well as an area of about twenty feet around it, but found nothing except the usual gas and water pipes. There was nothing hidden beneath the floor of the warehouse. Robin sighed and picked his way over the rubble strewn throughout the warehouse towards the door. He kicked it open irritably, only barely registering that his kick had knocked the door clean off of its rusted hinges, and headed towards the alley where the R-Cycle waited for him. He took one last look at the warehouse over his shoulder as he came to the entrance to the alley and swore colourfully under his breath before disappearing into the shadows, only to come roaring out only seconds later on his distinctive red motorcycle, on his way back to Titans Tower.

**OOO**

"Well, Robin—find anything?" Cyborg asked casually as Robin flopped down on the couch in the Titans' living room. Cyborg was sitting in front of the main computer screen, having switched over from the super-high-speed internet connection in his room to the sheer processing power of the Titans' mainframe while Robin was away. He was busily absorbing fifteen-by-twenty feet of information, and hadn't even turned around to address his friend.

"Nothing. Nada. Bupkiss," Robin growled irritably. "Zilch, zero, goose egg, squat…Not a single building along the route I projected for that prison robot had any trace of anything even _remotely_ similar to a villain's hideout, so unless we're dealing with a big-time villain with some kind of secret hidden lair outside the city, that's a completely dead end." He rose and walked up behind Cyborg, staring over his shoulder at the massive screen. "How about you? Did _you_ find anything?"

"Actually, yeah, I did," Cyborg said with a smile. "Just give me a second to finish up."

Robin waited patiently as his mechanical friend closed down every single one of the dozens of information windows he had open—he noted that nearly half of them showed some variation of the S.T.A.R. labs logo. Cyborg swivelled in his chair so that he faced Robin.

"I've still got nothing so far with those tests on Starfire," he began, "but I've started running some of the data in a couple of different ways, looking for slightly different things, so hopefully that will turn up something. I'm having to tap into a few different places, including S.T.A.R. and one of those new supercomputers WayneTech has up and running in Seattle, so it'll probably take at least a day to finish that up. But I've made a lot of progress in looking into those robots."

"That's great," Robin said. "If we find the guy behind this, we might not even _need_ those tests."

"Right. Anyway, here's what I found so far," Cyborg continued. "Five robots of the models we encountered have been sold recently to buyers in Jump City—one each of the 'slasher', 'stabber', and 'shooter', two of the prison bot models, all from different sources, mostly area militias, although one seller was from Montana. Out of all of the sellers, I only found two who ever met their buyer face-to-face, and from their descriptions it was probably the same guy, even if a lot of details were lacking. Pretty basic stuff, nothing unusual: brown hair, about five-and-a-half feet tall, glasses, late thirties or early forties, that kind of thing. I ran it through a few databases anyway, and while they of course gave me huge lists of names, one in particular stood out. I had heard it before: Dr. Jonas Havelock."

"That name sounds familiar," Robin mused aloud. Cyborg nodded.

"Yeah, he was a research geneticist for S.T.A.R. labs a few years ago, supposed to be some kind of super genius," he said. "He was fired, though, amidst rumours that he was performing so-called 'unethical experiments'."

"I remember that," Robin said. "There was a big scandal for a while, and it landed Gothcorp some major genetics contracts once S.T.A.R. was effectively put out of the running."

"Exactly. It gets better, though," Cyborg continued. "Havelock's specialty was xenogenetics—_aliens_—and while S.T.A.R. was his main employer, he had strong ties to—get this—_Cadmus_, particularly something called 'Project: Big S'. Three guesses what _that_ was."

"Hmph. No kidding," Robin snorted. Cyborg grinned for a moment before becoming serious again and continuing.

"When he got fired from S.T.A.R., Cadmus cut its ties to him too—he was too public a figure for them, I guess—but before that he had full access to the database they had collected on alien lifeforms. I managed to hack into their system for a little while, and before their defences kicked me out I saw one species name I think you'll find _very_ interesting."

"Tamaraneans," Robin said flatly. Cyborg nodded.

"Got it in one. And the date the sample was collected was listed at about two years ago, just a few months before Havelock got let go. Blackfire hadn't shown up yet at that time, and no other Tamaraneans have ever come to Earth to my knowledge, so…"

"…so this Havelock had access to a genetic sample taken directly from Starfire," Robin finished for him, then frowned. "And if Cadmus let him go it must have been for more than just some 'unethical experiments'. Some of the people they had working for them...let's just say I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they had the Joker running their chemical warfare division. If Cadmus put Havelock out to dry, he would have had to have been a threat to them in some way, maybe they thought he was going to do something that would blow their cover. And if he had become obsessed with the idea of experimenting on Tamaraneans…" Robin paused and frowned again. "Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself, here. We don't even know for sure that this Dr. Havelock is out guy."

"Way ahead of you, Robin, my man," Cyborg said with a grin. "I looked into him, and found some hidden bank records of his showing a series of transfers of funds that are _exactly_ equal to what each of the five robots had been sold for. He didn't even _try_ to disguise the transfers."

"That's great, Cyborg! We know who we're looking for, so now we just have to track him down!" Robin said, enthusiasm clear in his voice, his excitement completely overriding his own disappointing investigations, but then a thoughtful look crossed his face. "Wait, the _five_ robots? We only fought four."

"Yeah, there was one extra prison bot, unless he bought something _else_ for exactly one hundred and fifty thousand, five hundred and twenty dollars," Cyborg replied. "Maybe he wanted a backup or something."

"Hmmm…I wonder…" Robin mumbled to himself, but Cyborg interrupted him as he continued.

"So, yeah, Havelock bought the robots, and with his knowledge of Tamaranean biology he could have easily created something to mess with Starfire's head and make her do whatever he wanted," Cyborg said. "And since he worked at S.T.A.R. labs, he would know the capabilities of the medical equipment we have here, since it comes from S.T.A.R.—whatever he did to Starfire, he probably could have made it so that we can't detect it easily."

"Hmmm…" Robin mumbled again, then turned on his heel and marched off towards the door. "Good work, Cyborg," he called over his shoulder. "I just have to ask Starfire something. I have a weird feeling about all of this."

"Yeah, uh, sure thing," Cyborg said, slightly mystified by Robin's behaviour. "You want me to keep looking into Havelock, see if I can find him?"

"Sure, if you don't mind. Take a break first, though—it'll do no good if you're exhausted," Robin replied just as he stepped through the door out into the hallway. He let the door slide shut behind him and quickened his pace so that he was standing outside Starfire's room in a matter of seconds. He knocked on the door, but got no reply.

"Starfire? Are you in there?" Robin asked. "I want to ask you something. I'm coming in."

He punched the lock override command into the small keypad next to her door and stepped cautiously into Starfire's room. While he was far more worried that he might have caught her 'indecent', he felt his hand stray towards his belt anyway—if she _was _being manipulated by some madman he couldn't afford to let his guard down, especially considering how strong she was. He had gotten a good look at what she had done to Jinx.

He needn't have bothered with such precautions, however. Starfire's room was empty.

**OOO**

Starfire lay strapped to what looked suspiciously like a dissection table, although even if she knew what that was she was far too panicked to notice. She struggled helplessly against her restraints, but even her alien strength could not break them. Starfire brought forth all the righteous fury she could muster and stared hard at the thick metal band covering her left wrist, but instead of the familiar heat behind her eyes and the bright green energy beams that followed there was nothing. She tried again, concentrating harder this time, but still nothing happened—her starbolts were not working. The shock of this realization cut through her panicked state like a razor, but even that could not compare to the cold, emotionless voice she heard an instant later.

"You'll find that you are quite helpless, alien," it said. Starfire turned to look where the voice had come from, but all she could make out in the shadows was the glare off of the speaker's glasses.

"There is nothing you can do. I am in control," the voice continued, still betraying no hint of any emotion. "Everything is going entirely according to my plan—I have you to do with as I please, when I please, and your friends will be none the wiser."

Starfire began struggling again, thrashing about even more franticly than before. The voice chuckled humourlessly.

"It is futile, alien. Your struggles mean nothing. The experiments will proceed," it stated flatly, then the glare of the glasses shifted as the man in the shadows turned his head to address some other unseen person. "Fulton! Begin the first battery of tests."

There was no response, but the small sounds of several switches being flipped came from further back in the shadows, followed by an ominous hum from the various pieces of machinery that surrounded Starfire. Suddenly, electricity arced across the metal table, and Starfire screamed.

**OOO**

Robin stepped back into the hall outside Starfire's room and flipped open his communicator. Cyborg's image popped up on the screen.

"Cyborg, Starfire's not in her room," Robin said hurriedly. "Can you run a search of the Tower, maybe check the security records for…"

"Looking for me?"

Robin spun and came face to face with Starfire. She was walking down the hall towards him, looking bemused.

"Where were you?" Robin asked, eyeing her suspiciously. "I thought I told you to stay in your room."

"I merely had to use the bathroom. I _am_ permitted to do that, am I not?" Starfire replied with an innocent smile. Robin said nothing, but continued to glare at her.

"Really, Robin, are you so mistrustful of me that you think that I will sneak away at the first possible moment?" Starfire continued in an almost scolding tone. Robin was having difficulty reading her expression, and he didn't like it.

"Robin? What was that you said you…?" Cyborg's voice said from Robin's communicator.

"Never mind, Cyborg, it's nothing," Robin mumbled and closed his communicator. "Starfire, I need to talk to you about something."

"Of course, Robin. What is it that you would like to talk about?" Starfire said with an unconvincing smile, pushing past him and opening her door. "Please, come inside—I assume that you wish to keep it private."

Robin nodded absent-mindedly, lost in thought as he stared down the hall in the direction Starfire had come from, then followed her back into her room, letting the door slide shut behind him.

_-End Chapter Four-_

**Author's Note:** Not really much to say about this one. I hope the little segment with Robin investigating the warehouse and the conversation with Batman helped to make up for the masses and masses of exposition in this chapter. I also hope that what is happening with Starfire isn't super-super-obvious. I'm trying to give some false hints and misdirection to keep it interesting, but I can't really be all that up-front about them, so they might just slip by unnoticed. The best I can hope for at this point is probably just ambiguity. Oh, well.

A number of people have mentioned to me that Starfire's 'out of character' stuff isn't really all that out of character for the comic book version of Starfire. This is quite true, but then I'm not posting this under the comic book Teen Titans section. I know a lot of people mix elements of the characters from both the comics and the cartoon—I do this myself to some extent—but for this story I am very much working under the assumption that Starfire is as she appears in the cartoon. That is, she is a very passionate person, and comes from a warrior culture, but she is also quite naïve (even in the ways of _her_ world, if you ask me) and generally good-natured. She is very much the tall, skinny, awkward foreign girl. This violent streak she's shown in recent chapters _is_ out of character for this version of Starfire—as destructive as she might get when she's really angry, her attempted murder of Jinx (because that's what it was) was done purely in cold blood. She weighed the options, decided that the world would be a better place if Jinx were dead, and set about to make that so. Emotions, normally Starfire's main driving force, had nothing to do with it. Furthermore, her resentful comments towards her friends (although we didn't see what she said to Cyborg while he was conducting the tests) is even _more_ out of character. Finally, I would just like to clarify that Starfire being out of character here _isn't_ a bad thing. It's actually what I set out to do. Something really is wrong with her, so I can't have her acting like she usually does, now can I?

This might be the place for a self-indulgent little note as to what my agenda is with this story. As I've said before, Starfire isn't my favourite character in the show—why, then, am I focussing an entire story on her? Well, my aim is to darken her character a little, get her questioning her notions of right and wrong, but I can't just say "Hey, presto!" and make that so without showing how she got there from where she is in the cartoon (at least, my personal sensibilities won't let me do that). So my agenda for this story is to show how the Starfire in the cartoon gets to be the Starfire I want to write about. Once I get her there, options open up for me address certain issues of her warrior upbringing, what it means to be a warrior versus a defender, and so on, with Blackfire and the Warlords of Okaara playing major roles in this, but that's still way in the future, and those of you who read my author's notes for 'Watched' will know what tends to happen to my far-future plans (i.e. they die tragic little deaths). So I don't want to get people's hopes up about these possible future developments by doing something like mentioning that fan favourite Red X will probably appear in them—dammit, I just did, didn't I?

It's hard to believe that I started this out by saying that I didn't have much to say about this chapter.

**To My Reviewers:**

samanthe2121: Thank you. I will try.

Valda: Unfortunately, the Joker will not be making any further appearances. I like him as a villain too, but a) I don't really trust myself to write him well, and b) he doesn't fit into the plot from here on. Oh, well.

hhgbh: Yes, Starfire is _definitely_ off her nut at the moment. I actually find that hesitation to kill that Sladebot interesting, because in one of her early appearances in the comics Starfire had to be reined in during a fight because she was destroying every robotic minion in sight when Robin wanted at least one intact to use as evidence. She also learned English by kissing Robin, but that's beside the point.

cutterforthecause: Evil Starfire, eh? Well, we'll see. Things definitely won't be getting particularly fluffy, since that is not really where my interest in these characters lies. As for where I get my comics, most (if not all) of my knowledge of the older ones comes from titanstower dot com. As for the current ones, I get them at a comic book and hobby store in my home town. I've been thinking of getting subscriptions, but I move back and forth between home and school (which is out of town) fairly regularly, and having to continuously change my address is a pain in the ass.

Blackbird: What triggered it indeed…Muwahahahahaaaa! Ahem. Sorry. Yeah, so like I said above, I'm _not_ trying to find a middle-ground for Starfire here (at least not yet). It actually kind of disturbs me that people are so willing to accept the difference in her personality. She tried to murder Jinx, for God's sake! _Murder_! Not manslaughter, not accidental death, _murder_! I know kids these days are desensitized to violence, but Jesus tap dancing Christ! This isn't the Punisher, this is Starfire! Cute, innocent Starfire! _Murder_!

aotrs. commander: Man, writing scripts for something like Teen Titans would be a dream come true. Having to deal with the censorship and other content restrictions might blow a little, but still, being paid to write scripts that everyone would see for a show I like would be awesome. See my author's note for my thoughts on Starfire's out of character-ness (as well as my response to Blackbird). Don't get me started on pairings. The fact that so many fan fiction writers start out by telling you who's going to end up with who, even in the _summary_ of their story, just bugs the hell out of me. Beast Boy ends up with Raven? Okay, sure. Now I don't have to read your story, buddy. Thanks. Why do people think this is a good idea? Crap, I'm starting on pairings, aren't I?


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